Members of the National Road Council popularly known by its French acronym as CONAROUTE, have advocated for the creation of a single body responsible for accident prevention and road safety in Cameroon.

The experts made the proposal in Yaoundé recently during a meeting presided over by the Deputy Secretary General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Pascal Nguihe Kante.

Speaking on behalf of his team, the Permanent Secretary of the board, Dr. Mounpain Matapit Issofa, said Cameroon needs an agency that can deploy site supervisors to work without links with the owners of the works. He explained that the approach of deploying independent site supervisors was recommended by the United Nations experts during a recent mission carried out in Cameroon.

He added that the UN has selected Rwanda and Cameroon to implement this strategy, which can be supported by the United Nations. With regards to monitoring and control of construction works, CONAROUTE experts suggest government creates a road agency, which will carry out site supervisory missions without the influence of those carrying out the constructions.

They also advocated that financing of road infrastructure should be handed over to CONAROUTE. To the experts, the public funding channels, including the state treasury and the Road Fund have not been performing well.

Difficulties faced by small and medium size companies in accessing bank loans were also advanced as some of the challenges relating to the slow pace in road works. In the end, the road experts expressed the wish to see construction works resume on major road projects and deadlines respected.

It should be recalled that the meeting is taking place at a time when construction works on the Yaoundé – Douala motorway has witnessed a considerable slowdown. Access to funding has been attributed as one of the major reason for the delay in the execution of the project. So far, only about 20 kilometres of road have been tarred in the first phase which covers 40 km marking a total execution rate of about 40%.