ADB Bank to re-enter Limbe shipyard financing

After backing out six years ago, the African Development Bank, ADB, is back to provide funding for the construction of the multibillion Limbe-Shipyard-Projects, meant for the repairs of oil rigs and other maritime vessels.

This was revealed by the new General Manager of the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering, Chantier Naval, Alfred Forgwei Mbeng, who told the press on Tuesday, June 17, at the Limbe Shipyard site that hopes were high that the ADB will soon be back.

“You know that for some time now our funding partners had suspended funding, but the good news is that, recently, the Minister of Finance had released the necessary finances to help us unblock the situation to the tune of FCFA 100 million. And so, in the days ahead we are very sure that our funding partners will be back on the table,” Forgwei said.

The Minister of Public Works, Patrice Amba Salla, who was also at the Limbe Shipyard on Tuesday, on his part said the Government was presently working to ensure that things are put in order so as to avoid the delays that were witnessed last time .

“We are going to discuss with our funding partners to see if we can have the necessary funding that will take the project to its end,” the Minister said.

He further discloses that his visit to the Shipyard, however, was to see how he could strike a working relationship with the Shipyard so that the hundreds of engineers who are virtually idling in his Ministry can come and acquire some field experience at the Shipyard.

He was amazed at the level of engineering works that was going on at the Shipyard site and said it would be beneficial if these engineers parked in the Ministry or Ministries can come to the field so that they spend time gathering knowledge that will be useful to them and the Country when the foreign expatriates must have left.

Minister Amba Salla, initially, had been treated to a power point presentation depicting all the construction works that had already been achieved at the Shipyard site in Limbe.

After this, the Task Force Manager, Baye Beck, who did the presentation, alongside the GM and Board Chair of Chantier Naval, led the Minister and his entourage to a guided tour of the Shipyard.

During the tour, Baye Beck said the Limbe Shipyard is already 53 percent complete. He, nevertheless, reiterated the fact that if the project must be completed, financing needs to be sought. He added that the project needs circa $240 to 250 million, approximately FCFA 130 to 140 billion.

Baye Beck said they, presently, needed funding for the equipment of these workshops, acquiring a floating dock, tarring of access roads to the site and completing other structures that are still needed on the site.

It should be noted that the ADB had already started financing the project with construction earmarked to run from 2005 to 2008, when it was expected to be completed.

But the ADB suddenly closed its financial taps in 2008 when the project had just begun, thereby, forcing the project to a standstill until recently.