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China-Africa relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Chinese funding keeps Cameroon’s deep seaport expansion project afloat

  • Cameroon’s Kribi Deep Seaport project, funded by China Eximbank, is set to enter its second construction phase next year
  • The port will provide relief for current main port, Douala, as well as serve as a trading gateway for landlocked African countries

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Kribi Deep Seaport in Cameroon aims to become a major Central African trading hub once second phase construction is complete. Photo: Xinhua
Jevans Nyabiage
A small fishing town in southwest Cameroon is counting on Chinese funding to transform itself into a major Central African sea hub.
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The Kribi Deep Seaport, on Africa’s Atlantic coast, is being built by Chinese state-owned China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), and largely funded by China Eximbank which has provided around US$1.48 billion over the past decade.
It is hoped the port will provide relief to Douala, Cameroon’s main port around 150km (93 miles) to the north, and that it will serve as a gateway for landlocked neighbours including Chad and the Central African Republic.

The first phase of the port was completed in 2014 and has been in operation since 2018. Pascal Balla Ondoua, director of studies, projects and cooperation for Kribi Port Authority, said the second phase of the project would make the port bigger and deeper.

“We hope that operations in the second phase will start in the first quarter of 2025,” Ondoua told the Post in an interview at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.

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The second phase, once complete, will double the port’s capacity – with the hope that Kribi will then attract more transshipment cargo and larger vessels.

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