Kribi - Cameroon in a Nutshell

I went down to Kribi for a couple of days with Dad and my cousin Lobe to have a look at the Global Health Dialogue Conference Centre that my Dad built and which was inaugurated two years ago on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

The International Dialogue Centre

While there we also inspected a development site at Bebamwe just to the north of the town that he owns and which we are considering developing into a complex of apartments to meet the demand primarily from the ex-pats arriving here.

Kribi beach

There is no doubt that the Kribi area in the south of Cameroon on the Atlantic coast offers real opportunities. It has beautiful white sand beaches and is surrounded on all other sides by lush tropical rain forest inhabited by pygmies and wildlife that, in many places like Bebamwe, extends to the beach itself. In addition it is the second busiest port after Douala and a new deep water port is being constructed as part of huge planned infrastructure developments. These developments include an aluminium plant to exploit the nearby bauxite reserves and a new power plant to add to the already operational gas pipeline from Chad that runs the length of the country to come out into the sea here. International banks and contractors are looking at Kribi with great interest and the beaches, abundant fresh seafood and national park rain forests offer good touristic opportunities.

But all is not well in paradise. There are already signs of pollution on the beaches, the electricity went off during the day for an average of five hours while we were there and for an area that promises high quality new infrastructure, the main road through the town is an embarrassment with its huge pot-holes. One might also ask how the huge developments that are planned are going to operate if the town can’t even provide electricity to meet current needs during the day? Power cuts are common enough here when the peak load occurs after dark but failing to power the town at 4pm in the afternoon in broad daylight on a sunny day really isn’t good enough.

The latest World Bank report says that Cameroon has great potential but significant challenges. Nowhere is this summed up better than Kribi where the harsh reality of poor planning and/or implementation is getting in the way of realising that potential. But if you like drinking beer and eating barbecued fish on the beach then its absolutely fine!