PAD, Port Container Solutions sign deal for new logistics area.

The agreement was signed on Friday, May 30. The Director General of PAD, Cyrus Ngo'o, and the General Administrator of the Douala Port Solutions, Dr Evarist Elundou Onana, signed the agreement for their respective structures. 

This was during a ceremony that marked the completion of the contractual negotiation process between the PAD and DPCS S.A., within the framework of the public-private partnership approach.

The said agreement covers the study, design, financing, development, operations, maintenance, and upgrading of the logistic area. Valued at an estimated 50 billion FCFA, the project, according to PAD DG, “is one of the priority projects identified in the Development Master Plan for the first phase of the investment program”.

The investment programme, he said, has objective to improve the operating conditions of the current site of the Port of Douala-Bonaberi. 

"The completion of this project is a decisive step in the process of strengthening the port's logistical and operational capacities to manage the growing flow of import, export, and transit containers," Cyrus Ngo'o said. 

He went on to thank PAD’s partners of the DPCS-SA for the time and effort devoted to contributing to the completion of the negotiation process of the deal. 

Noting that there are a multitude of empty container storage areas in the port and its surrounding areas brought about by the lack of appropriate approach to container management, he said the same was experienced in 2013 with severe congestion of land and water areas. 

Cyrus Ngo'o said this prompted the port authority, with the aid of the PAD Advisory Steering Committee, CCO'PAD, to encourage private operators to develop additional storage areas within the port and outside the port area to temporarily relieve the strain on saturated port terminals.

However, it has increasingly been observed by PAD officials that the somewhat haphazard operation of several platforms has led to numerous stumbling blocks in the logistical organisation of the operations concerned, often hampering the smooth flow at the port transit of containers.

It was further disclosed that the safety of handling empty containers at several platforms and the poor quality of the equipment currently in use, are out of touch with relevant international standards. 

It was within this backdrop of congestion challenges and in a bid to anticipate the future needs that Cyrus Ngo'o and his collaborators have initiated a diversification of infrastructure, including the project which prompted the signing ceremony at PAD headquarters.

On his part, the General Administrator of the Douala Port Solutions, Dr Evarist Elundou Onana, commended the strides recorded by PAD Director General in infrastructure development. 

He said since Cyrus Ngo'o took over in 2016, he has initiated reforms for innovations at the port to meet global standards. While assuring of his commitment to the cause, Onana said DPCS-SA has expertise of high quality with capacity to solve a certain number of issues with port management.

According to initial project studies, detailed by Joseph Nguene Nteppe, Chief of Analysis Prospective and Corporations at the port, activities related to the newly developed infrastructure of the empty container storage platform will provide direct responses to the needs of both the Port's container terminal and the ship owners who own these empty containers, considered as an extension of the ship's hold. 

The development of the platform, he said, will significantly improve the operational performance of both the container terminal and the ship owners.

Nteppe said the project is expected to stimulate economic growth by generating 200 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs. Additionally, revenue projection is estimated 220 billion FCFA during the exploitation period. The project is expected to end in 2028.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3462 of Monday June 02, 2025