By Ndumbe Bell Gaston in Douala
According to reports sourced from an evaluation session held at the Kribi Ports Authority last Tuesday June 19, it was found out that the Kribi Port had registered remarkable results, when the 24 major actors released their balance sheets for the first trimestral performances.
The session was chaired by the General Manager, Patrice Melom in the presence of other stakeholders.
Among the very significant results mentioned since it went operational in early March 2018, about 66 container vessels have already docked at the container terminals, be it for loading and unloading transactions, even though there are yet some problems to be catered for in management of space which, the General Manager Patrice said the issue will be solved in the weeks ahead.
The Chief of sector Norbert Belinga of the customs service prided himself for having put all in place to achieve the much needed dematerialization of procedures, while the officials in charge of the container terminals said they are progressively recruiting and training new personnel to overturn delays.
Major significant performances were also highlighted during the visit of the Minister of Transport Jean Ernest Ngalle Bibeye to the Kribi Ports Authority on Wednesday June 20. He was there to show solidarity with the results and encourage them to carry on.
The General Manager of the Customs Service, Edwin Fongod Nuvaga disclosed that in the month of May, the Customs Service made a collection of 1 billion FCFA. Before the port became operational in March, 8.6 million FCFA was collected in January 2018 and grew exponentially to 94 millions in March and in April 145 million CFA.
The General Manager disclosed a long list of their achievements, for instance that between March and May, 526 containers and their 20-ft equivalents put together were recorded unloaded at Kribi Port. Some 3,205 manifests were validated – 518 in March, 1138 in April and 1,549 in May. The General Manager named the 10 principal destinations for the unloading of merchandise in the Port of Kribi as follows; Cameroon (47,5%), Gabon (26,1%), Republique Democratique du Congo (8,6%), China (5,9%), India (3,6%) Vietnam (2,4%), Angola (1%), Nigeria (5,5%), and Belgium (0,4%).
Some goods imported through Kribi Ports are such things as transistors, diodes and related elements totaling 179.8 tons, Malt (1.595 tons), natural alcohol (550.3 tons), cables and other conductors (107.7 tons), and items like boxes, bags paper bags, cartons and others (181 tons). Steel rods etc (15,9 tons), video projectors, television, video monitors (1ton), meanwhile refrigerators, freezers and others (24.3 tons).
Top on the list of exports are, wood, whether partially transformed or otherwise, partly transformed cocoa paste, untransformed cotton and a host of others.