First manufactured cars expected in Cameroon in 2016

The Cameroon Automobile Industry Company S.A (CAIC) has stated that the first vehicles to enter the Cameroonian market will be in about a year and six months, according to the daily Le Quotidien de L’économie.

According to the newspaper, CAIC which was formed by the Indian company (Azad Coach) and Chinese Gonow Gac and Yutong, the leader in car manufacturing in China and third in the world, announced the introduction of two assembly units of trucks and light vehicles in Douala and Kribi. This vehicle assembly project in Cameroon required an amount of over FCFA 92 billion.

The Director General of the Investment Promotion Agency, Minja Marthe Angèle, indicated that "It is not easy to acquire FCFA 92 billion. As you saw, we spent a lot of time talking to the various investors we have and this shows their seriousness. We have people who are determined to see this project succeed. The very high authority has called for a committee to monitor the implementation of this project."

Land for the implementation of these assembly units is located in Douala and Kribi. According to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Technological Development, the project will create about 4620 direct jobs during the first 15 years. Furthermore, its implementation will be accompanied by technology transfer, measures to protect the environment, respect for standards and product quality vehicles, workstations, technical training, professional and socioeconomic shares to local residents.

However, this is not the first time an assembly plant in Cameroon was announced. “In 2012, the Chinese company, the Cameroon First Automobile Manufacturing Co Ltd, had already promised to set up a plant of the same type as that of CAIC. They promised the first vehicles to be visible in 2015.

But now, nothing has been heard about this project. Earlier in 2006, the US firm, Transnational Automotive Group, which sold its assets in the bus to a Zimbabwean investor, had sworn that it would build a vehicle assembly plant in Limbe. A decade later, not even the shadow of a carcass of a vehicle has been made in Cameroon,” concluded the newspaper.