Cameroon contracts faces financing problems

A major highway project in Cameroon faces funding issues as China has suspended its financing for the Yaoundé - Douala link. The highway has an estimated cost of US$473.3 million and the project includes a 68km link between the country’s capital and its second city, as well as an additional 23km of link roads. The link is being built by China First Highway Engineering (Cfhec) with funding by Eximbank. However a disagreement between Cameroon and the Chinese has resulted in the funding being halted for a period of month, with the potential of time extensions to this. Part of the problem is that the Cameroon authorities opted to increase the speed limit on the highway from 100km/h planned by the Chinese designers to 110km/h in line with French speed limits. It is not clear how this dispute can be resolved at this stage.