Dibamba port expansion project: Douala Port Authority, Arise Group sign development partnership.

The agreement was signed with Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms, Arise IIP, a subsidiary of the Pan-American Arise Group, on Monday September 30 at PAD headquarters in Bonanjo, Douala.  

The Director General of the Douala Port Authority, Cyrus Ngo’o, and the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Arise Group, Gagan Gupta, put pen on paper under the watchful eyes of regional, local administrators, economic experts amongst other dignitaries. 

The signing of the agreement came after a sensitisation meeting was held between the port authority and traditional rulers, quarter heads and inhabitants of Missole I. PAD’s representatives at the meeting as well as State administrators, assured inhabitants affected by the progress of the project that all parameters would be put in place to effectively indemnify displaced the population. 

The economic gains of the agreement concluded between the PAD and Arise IIP will enable the State of Cameroon to have a Multimodal Logistics Zone and an Integrated Industrial Platform, in line with the objectives of the National Development Strategy, SND30, relating to the structural transformation of the national economy and import substitution. 

It will also provide lasting solutions to the problem of employability and professional integration of young Cameroonians. 

In essence, the major structuring project aimed to create an integrated industrial and logistics ecosystem, divided into three components: a 350-hectare industrial platform, a 100-hectare multimodal logistics zone, and a 50-hectare residential area. 

The project will target nine priority sectors: Agro-industry, wood sector, textiles, mining, energy, construction, digital, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. According to estimates stated by Joseph Nguene Nteppe, head of analysis and cooperation at PAD, the industrial zone will generate 15,000 direct jobs. 

"The expansion of agricultural land needed to provide inputs to the industrial zone could create about 500,000 jobs. The Director General, Cyrus Ngo’o, included in the agreement the obligation for the partner, Arise, to prioritise youth employability," he said.  

He added that it was a direct response to National Development Strategy. Cameroon, he said, can with the construction of the industrial zone at the Dibamba increase its potentials to export and boost local transformation. 

Arise’s rich history of port dev’t 

Arise has a history of successful port development in Africa for the past 14 years. As a developer and operator of industrial parks, it has established industrial zones in Gabon, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.

Its spokesperson, Kumar Mohan, said their philosophy is that with any product which is exported in the country, they seek how to attract industrial market and make a platform to transform locally. 

He added that any product that the country is importing, "we seek how to make sure that we attract transformation locally. In this project, we have two phases; the first project is that of building a logistic corridor, thereby decongesting traffic at the Bonaberi port”.

"As you know today, Douala port is very congested, so the port of Dibamba is going to decongest it.  We are making a logistic platform which comprises of 122 hectares, made of warehouses, container yards, different infrastructure required for the port. So, much of the cargo which leave from outside can come directly there. Similar, most of the goods that come to Douala won't need to use the road but can go by boat through the Dibamba port," Kumar Mohan said.  

The second phase of the project, he said, will take into consideration the economic zone. 

"All the timber, industrial products which are not getting transformed, we plan to bring at least 14 to 15 investors in the country in the next two to three years so that with the timber transformation, import substitution could boost the local market. The project is direct answer to employment if all is put in place to attain set objectives," he added. 

Partnership contractual packages

The partnership agreement is said to be a contractual package consisting of a main agreement supplemented by annexes, specific terms to govern the modalities of implementation of certain activities provided for by the Convention. 

For the execution of the project, companies will be created, each having responsibility for the development of a specific component. 

So, for the creation and management of the Multimodal Logistics Zone, a Project Company called Dibamba Douala Port Logistics Platform, DDLP, will be created within which PAD and ARISE IIP will be co-shareholders. 

In order to achieve the Integrated Industrial Platform, ARISE IIP will have to create a Project Company of which it will hold the entire share capital and which will have the mission of designing and financing of the development and maintenance of this platform.

The Multimodal Logistics Zone will extend over an area of ​​approximately 120 hectares and will include in particular the construction of the following facilities. 

A 250m long pier, warehouses including bonded warehouses of around 50,000m, a container park of approximately 35 hectares, an area dedicated to filling and unloading, a 35-hectare woodland park, a parking area for trucks and an administrative building.

An Integrated Industrial Platform will be built over an area of ​​350 hectares and must include spaces designed for the installation of investors carrying out their activities in key sectors such as agricultural/wood processing, power plant, production of construction materials; pharmaceutical industries; and any other industrial activity not prohibited by the laws in force in Cameroon. 

Following the project implementation, the Dibamba port area will have good road infrastructure, water purification network, electricity distribution network, communication network, weighing infrastructure, perimeter and access security system, training and skills development centre, documentation and archives centre, firefighter barracks and firefighting system, community facilities, health area, rest area, leisure area, service stations, catering, worship places, etc. 

Furthermore, the creation of additional components like residential zone, may be done on the basis of specific agreements. 

Cost of investments for the first phase of implementation of the two components of the project has been estimated at approximately 230 billion FCFA, broken down as follows: Multi-nodal Logistics Zone: 160 billion FCFA and Industrial Platform Integrated: 70 billion FCFA. 

PAD, it was disclosed, will collect the user fees due to the port authority reserved to the occupation of the public port domain. 

Under the Multimodal Logistics Zone, PAD will receive a fixed fee and a variable fee which will be indicated and taken into account in the Business Plan and included in the Specifications. 

On this component, PAD will also receive dividends from shareholders due to its participation in the share capital of the project company in charge of managing the area.  Under the Integrated Industrial Platform, PAD will receive a fixed royalty which will be calculated on the occupied plots. 

How Arise Group was selected as partner 

Joseph Nguene Nteppe, head of analysis and cooperation at PAD, stated in an interview that "the project will be executed through a public-private partnership, PPP with Arise IIP, which had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PAD". 

The selection process began in October 2020 with a wide dissemination of the project for the development of a PAD Economic and Logistics Zone in a peri-port zone at Missole. 

This was through the publication of the PAD Project Bank, aimed at arousing the interest of as many private investors as possible and followed by an International Public Call for Expression of Interest to investors on November 2, 2022. 

Arise IIP Group spontaneously expressed its interest in this project and concluded a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the PAD dated March 7, 2024. 

It was amended by amendment number one signed on August 12, 2024, materialising the intentions of the parties to collaborate in the realisation of the said project, and paving the way for the realisation of the pre-feasibility studies and the submission of a technical-financial proposal at the expense of PAD.  

The evaluation of the proposals received allowed PAD to conclude that the offer submitted by the partner, Arise IIP, meets the ambitions displayed by the port authority for carrying out this important project.

In accordance with port regulations, the project was submitted to the Consultative Orientation Committee of the Port of Douala, CCO'PAD, which, after examination, issued its favourable Opinion No. 110 of September 26, 2024. 

At the end of this process, a partnership agreement for the design, financing, development and management of an industrial-port activity zone on the banks of the Dibamba was negotiated. 

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