BY NDUMBE BELL JOSEPH GASTON IN DOUALA
The Douala Autonomous Port (PAD) has made robust performances in many areas to attract “A” ratings from the Bloomfield Investment Corporation observatory for its’ initiatives realised by the present administration under Cyrus Ngo’o.
In an evaluation published on March 15, the committee responsible noted that for the very first time in its history, the port’s innovative trends such as in the port of Douala-Bonaberi, has made the port of greater strategic importance to the State as indicated by the contributions made to the national economy.
This financial rating as specified by the observatory that is said to be Ivorian-based, explained that the ‘A’ rating is a long-term observation while an ‘A2’ is for the short-term with what, they say, includes the port’s stable outlook. PAD has realised a number of standards, renovations and modernised projects including superstructures.
The General Manager Cyrus Ngo’o in his own words underlined that the ‘A’ rating reflects the high credit quality; “The “A” rating with a stable outlook means that PAD over the long term, displays high credit quality and over the short-term healthy liquidity ratios (where the risk of non-payment is out) in an environment where not short-term factors could degrade it’s performance indicators. These are investment ratings which illustrate the solidity of the fundamentals of PAD and it’s comfortable liquidity”,he elaborated.The “A” rating is therefore in the low risk category just under the AAA super rating.
It is reported that the Ports towing department made a net result performance of FCFA I billion and the acquisition of the ports timber equipment (quay) at FCFA 8 billion were mentioned. The port is said to have attracted Bloomfield observatory when PAD was found to have increased their traffic by 8% and made tariff revisions since 2018 including the implementation of other measures.
Bloomfield equally made findings on the financial health of the ports authority and saw that the financial turn-over within 5 years of administration rose from FCFA 38.019 billion to an impressive FCFA 65.528 billion. Revenue collected was referred to have reached FCFA 18.202 billion from FCFA 8.261 billion in the same period.
The B.I.C says PAD is the only known recipient in Cameroon after Camtel in 2014.