Automated tollgates project: French company drags Cameroon to Abidjan court, claims 35 billion FCFA.

The contract was reportedly terminated in February 2024, via a letter signed by the Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi.

The public-private partnership contract was signed in 2019. The contract covered the construction of some 14 automated toll stations across the country.

Now, TOLLCAM, a joint venture under Cameroonian law, created by the French groups, Fayat (50%) and Egis (50%), is not merely seeking compensation. 

The consortium joins the growing list of foreign companies suing the Cameroonian government in international courts, a list that is getting longer, and a bill that is mounting.

What TOLLCAM is claiming

The case was filed with the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration, CCJA of the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa, OHADA in Abidjan. 

TOLLCAM is seeking 35 billion FCFA francs from the government of Cameroon.

The company had already cited the amount in proceedings before the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, where it initially sought 30 billion FCFA. 

The referral to the Abidjan Court marks a new stage in a standoff that has been ongoing since the contract was terminated in February 2024. The public-private partnership contract was awarded on April 24, 2019, to the French consortium of Fayat and Egis. 

The scope of the project included the financing, design, construction, equipping, operation, and maintenance of 14 automated toll stations on the country’s paved roads. The project was intended to modernize the collection of road tolls. 

The sites involved included Nsimalen (Yaounde-Mbalmayo), Mbankomo (Yaounde-Mbankomo), and Tiko (Douala-Mutenguene), among others. The initial cost of the project was estimated at nearly 42 billion FCFA. The first phase was to cover seven toll stations.

Where trouble began…

On February 2, 2024, the Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, sent a letter to Philippe Serain, President of TOLLCAM Partenariat SAS.

Government had decided to “suspend the implementation of the project under the PPP model, with a view to converting it into a public contract for its transfer to full ownership by the State”.

In other words, the government was seeking to take back the operation and maintenance of the 14 toll stations from TOLLCAM. 

As per the decision, the company was to be responsible only for the financing, design, construction, and equipping of the services for which it would be compensated under a public contract to be concluded.

The decision followed the conclusions of the 14th session of the Project Monitoring Committee, held on February 2, 2024.

What the Minister explained

On November 28, 2025, Minister Nganou Djoumessi issued a briefing note to clarify the situation. He noted that the project was declared eligible for the public-private partnership, PPP framework on April 5, 2016, based on a technical and economic study. 

The Council for the Support of Public-Private Partnership Contracts, CARPA had issued a favorable opinion. The Ministry of Finance later validated the project’s financial sustainability.

According to the minister, the four-year delay between eligibility and signing was due to reservations raised by the financial partner, particularly discussions regarding foreign exchange risk for foreign banks and the International Finance Corporation’s requirements regarding expropriations.

The minister had also explained the delay in commissioning the first seven stations that have already been built.

A doomed project?         

The project for the construction of some 14 automated toll stations, it should be recalled, has been dragging on since 2016. 

Ten years after the announcement, not a single toll station is fully operational. The first seven that were built are still awaiting commissioning.

In December 2020, the Ministry of Public Works had already attributed the delays to “the complexity of the project and the difficulty in securing funding”.

A memo from the Ministry cited these reasons to explain the return to a public procurement option, which was subsequently abandoned.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3913 of Friday September 18, 2026