The Buea Council has signed a project agreement with Mothercat Cameroon Limited for the construction of the Buea Central Market. The signing ceremony took place on Friday, February 13, 2015 at the deliberation chambers of the Buea Council.
According to the agreement, the FCFA 2.5 billion worth Modern Market will be constructed at the site that presently hosts the Buea Central Market in Molyko.
Dr. Ekema Patrick Esunge, Mayor of the Buea Council who signed the agreement on behalf of his institution said Mothercat shall construct 1,000, lockup shops and 500 open stalls in the Buea Central Market that will occupy close to 15 hectares of land.
Alechenu Yusuf Adah, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mothercat Cameroon Limited who signed on behalf of his company that has a Nigerian parent added that apart from the 1,000 shops and 500 open stalls, 10 warehouses, administrative units, state of the art toilet facilities and tarmac road network within the market will also constitute the project package.
“…the market shall expand with directives from the Buea Council if the need arises. The market has been designed to operate on a daily basis for 24 hours and shall feature wide variety of goods and services with maximum security,” Alechenu said.
Given that the market will be constructed on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis, Alechenu assured that a solid job will be done.
“Without a shadow of doubt, the impact of this project shall be indelible upon the sands of time and eternity…Indeed, Buea has the potential capacity to be the Dubai of Africa if only we can bear in mind the need to invest more than we have done in time past,” the Chairman of Mothercat Cameroon Limited said.
On what motivated the Buea Council to enter such an agreement, mayor Ekema had this to say: “We were uncomfortable with the kind of makeshift structures we have for a market.
We were preoccupied with the quest of constructing a befitting market and finally in November 2014, we started in-depth negotiations with Mothercat Cameroon Limited and this took us to the United States where the preliminary talks took place.
And at the council session of December 27, 2014, during the budgetary session, councillors endorsed a deliberation to empower this act to be committed by council management.
The act was approved by the supervisory authority who is the direct representative of the Minister of territorial Administration and Decentralisation. This act has empowered us to enter into a contract with Mothercat Cameroon Limited.”
Informed that many may see this as a political gimmick, the mayor while pointing to the massive crowd at the ceremony said: “Even if people do politics, it is ridiculous to take a Governor and the kind of dignitaries you had for political gains. We are in real business.
We give you a week from now and work will commence at the site. From time to time, you can come on and ask questions on the evolution of the job. We are going to put in a competent team to supervise the job; to ensure that the Mothercat Cameroon Limited meets up with the specifications as contained in the contract.
Mothercat will construct and run the market for 31 years. The construction will be done in two phases: 500 shops and 250 stalls in the first phase and the same number in the second phase. The project will last for 16 months.
During this period the mayor says the council will make close to FCFA 8 million a month from the market, while Mothercat recovers its expenditure and makes its profit.
“We are convinced that for the 1,000 shops, ground rents of FCFA 2,000 will be paid to the council, giving it a total of FCFA 3 million per month. If you go by market toll and assuming that we have 1500 traders in the market, FCFA 100 daily times 30 days will give us FCFA 4.5 million and the parking space is tipped to give the council FCFA 500,000 a month,” Mayor Ekema said. The mayor simply describes the project as: “a good deal that will impact on the community, the revenue base of the council and the wellbeing of our population.”
The governor of the south west region, Okalia Bilai Bernard, Fako Senior Divisional officer Zang III among others attended the signing.
Reaction Councillor Dr. Kingsley Ngange This is real development. It is a major step towards the rapid development of Buea. In the recent years, Buea remains one of the fasted developing towns in the country.
This just comes to add to the beauty of the town; the town that deserves even more. As you would know, Buea was the capital of German Cameroon, was the British Southern Cameroons capital, the capital of West Cameroon, the South West Province and today the South West Region.
I think real development is coming. This is not politicking. The actors are on the ground. The first phase of the project will end in December and we are convinced that by then, we will see the stalls and all the structures for a befitting central market worth the status.
I’m a satisfied councillor, but with caution. I’ll be the more satisfied when you come back to talk with me in December when we already have the first phase of the project completed. But I’m optimistic. We have a dynamic leader.
The leadership is committed to this. The political, administrative and business leaders are all committed to this. When all members of the community are committed, we can only be hopeful that something good will come out of this.
