To boost municipal road construction, repairs: Urban dev’t minister arms Mamfe Council with bricks production machine.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, MINHDU, Célestine Ketcha Courtes, gave the fresh impetus to the initiative with the donation of pavement bricks production machines to Mamfe Council. 

The equipment was handed to the council officials in Yaounde over the weekend. The Mayor of Mamfe, Robertson Tabenchong Ashu, and the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, of Manyu, Awounfack Alienou Yves Bertrand, received the equipment from the ministry. 

Speaking to The Guardian Post after receiving the equipment, Mayor Tabenchong Ashu expressed gratitude to the member of government for “not giving the council fish but teaching it how to catch fish”. 

“This is just what the minister of urban development has done,” Tabenchong Ashu stated, while describing the equipment donated by the minister as “milestone” for the council. 

“I am very happy with this donation from the minister. The brick making machines are going to help the council to repair its local roads,” the mayor said.

Equipment to help fight unemployment among youth 

The municipal authority said the machines are also going to help the council provide employment to youth within the municipality. 

“…now that we are fighting unemployment, we are going to make sure that every year, we train at least 200 youth who will benefit from this project and take care of our municipal roads,” the mayor said.   

By so doing, he said the 200 youth will not only gain professional skills to become self-employed in the future but also benefit stipends from the council. 

“By so doing, we will now have local manpower that will enable us regularly repair our roads,” he further explained. 

Move to help repair dilapidated roads 

Mayor Tabenchong Ashu said with about 80% of roads in Mamfe town constructed over two decades ago in 2002, the pavement bricks will greatly help boost repair of dilapidated roads within the municipality. 

“With the pavement bricks, we are going to handle the municipal roads… roads that link to quarters and communities will be rehabilitated,” he said. 

Availability of local materials, durability of bricks 

Mayor Tabenchong Ashu disclosed that the council embarked on the use of pavement bricks for road repairs and construction because of the ready availability of local materials, its affordability and durability.    

“…we are using 15cm for the bricks compared to tarred roads that are 4cm. This makes it very thick. With this method, if a particular spot is bad, we just have to replace them easily. It is very affordable and available, the local materials are there, the manpower is there, we don’t need heavy duty machines to do the roads. The donation from the minister comes to add to what Mamfe Council is doing,” the mayor said. 

Mayor’s vote of thanks, call for collaboration 

Mayor Tabenchong Ashu expressed gratitude to the SDO of Manyu for adding “more impetus to our request to the minister” that led to the donation of the equipment. 

The mayor called on youth within Mamfe municipality to seize the opportunity and get additional skills on pavement bricks production “because once they are trained, they can become self-employed and we will be hiring their services from time to time to repair or construct our roads”. 

While calling for collaboration and support from those in neighbourhoods and village committees, Mayor Tabenchong Ashu expressed the wish to employ at least 500 youth before the end of the mandate for the project to transform roads within the municipality. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3247 of Wednesday October 02, 2024