09/09/2025
*WHAT CAMEROON NEEDS MOST* Sat. 6th September, 2025
_By Dr Nick Ngwanyam_, MD
I had the pleasure of talking with my Brother H. E. Shey Jones one week ago.
We have so many challenges but where do we start to solve our problems strategically for better leverage?
I have been arguing very strongly that we need to start with Education, Agriculture, health, job creation etc.
He took time off to educate me on where we should start to correct or heal Cameroon . He explained the *Why* and the *How*.
START WITH ROADS
This is the key for the nation to come out of the ditch. At this material moment, everything is important.
GOOD Roads are the backbone of politics, economics, development, security and education.
SO for solutions to Agriculture, education, industry and health to be effective, TRANSPORTATION MUST BE MADE EFFECTIVE THROUGH AN IMPROVED ROAD NETWORK.
*This is the Emergency and No. One Priority for Cameroon.*
He pointed out that roads were the first thing to be built in Germany during the reconstruction .
The Roman Empire made a lot of strides and expanded because of the roads that were built .
With this eye opener, we need to _come up with a strategy to make road construction our number one priority in Cameroon._
*We need to cut down on the cost of building roads in Cameroon.*
We need to engage more of our youths to quickly join in the efforts for this to happen quickly.
SO AS I HAVE BEEN REFLECTING DURING THIS WEEK AS TO:- *HOW TO MAKE IMPORT SUBSTITUTION AND EMERGENCE 2035 A REALITY IN CAMEROON*, I HAD THESE IDEAS IN MIND:
1) ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN CAMEROON SHOULD TAKE 40 TO 50% OF THE NATIONAL BUDGET IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF YEARS.
2) *BUDGET EXECUTION:*🙏💪🩷 _bills for road construction should be paid as a priority_ to other bills except military and health, not celebrations etc.
In so doing, roads will be constructed at much cheaper rates without the need to corrupt anyone to get preferential payments. This will also keep bank charges on loans low and drive down the costs of roads.
3) *CREATION OF CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN EVERY SUB DIVISION.*
Youths of every subdivision should create 3 or 4 road construction companies to build roads in their subdivisions. The councils and populations will be mandated to check on quality and performance as they would know all the terms of the contracts and the details there of.
4) Most of our roads shall be built by our indigenous local companies. *D I Y* ( Do It Yourself) . _This will create a lot of jobs for youths, grow the middle class, increase wealth creation while reducing violence, drug abuse and hate speech._
Remember that no African country/ company is building roads in France and China. Do you know why?
5) A structure shall be created to import *heavy duty construction equipment* from China at low cost and couple them in Cameroon at various locations round the country .
These equipment shall be sold to the construction companies created by our youths on a couple of conditions:
A) *They do not have to pay a franc upfront to get the equipment they need to work.*
B) The *cost of the equipment = Cost in China + 10 % mark up* [ handling charges only]
C) ZERO CUSTOM DUTY.
D) ZERO TAXES ON ROAD CONSTRUCTION.
E) The cost of the equipment is deducted gradually from the cost of the roads the youths are building until the debts on equipment are paid off.
6) THE TAR..
We can start by borrowing tar from nations that are refining a lot of crude oil, getting tar as a by product.
Wr can also put in place a tar production factory attached to our local refineries .
7) PRODUCTION OF GRAVEL [ AGGREGATE FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION]
We shall create stone quarries everwhere, use equipment from China to get this raw naterial for our youths everywhere at low costs. No taxes. Only a 15% mark up on the cost of production to keep the systems alife.
*Conclusion:* 🩷🙏🍷💪👇
_This is how the *3rd Option* shall trigger development, education, economic growth, Agriculture etc in Cameroon._
_As we tackle the road issues, we also pay attention to the production of cheap village/private electricity through green sources like microhydro systems._
*Now we all know what the 3rd Option shall do to get us started.*
Will be glad to hear your comments what we need to add to make these plans and strategies better
God bless Cameroon
