OKie Johnson joins Minister Gaston Eloundou Essomba to lay Foundation stone
Cameroon's Minister of Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba has officially laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Bamenda Liquefied Petroleum Gas Plant. The foundation stone was laid Saturday 5, November 2022.
While launching the construction works, Minister Essomba remarked that Bamenda already has a huge market but often suffer from price hikes mainly caused by middlemen who buy from the filling centre in Bafoussam.
"The nearest gas depot from Bamenda is located 80km away and this has greatly hampered the usage of gas in Bamenda that sells above the regulated price of 6600 frs CFA." Minister Essomba addressed the crowd.
With government's vision to increase the usage of domestic gas in the country to 60% by 2035, Minister Gaston Eloundou Essomba notes that high dependency on gas will reduce the usage of coal and wood, create jobs and revitalize the local economy.
A thought shared by Prof Fru Angwafo III, President of the North West Regional Assembly who highlights that dependency on gas is a means of protecting the ozone layer from depleting, hence reducing the dangers of climate change and eventual global warming.
Prof Fru Angwafo III used the occasion to call on the powers that be to continue the devolving of powers to the region to enhance community and regional development.
Expected to last for two years, the project will cost the government of Cameroon a record 5.6 billion francs and will be constructed on a total surface area of 6 hectares of land.
Fons of the North West extend their blessings to the Minister
Located in Bangshie, in Bamendakwe in the Bamenda I subdivision, the gas filling station will have the capacity of renewing expired gas bottles, refilling of domestic. The project also seeks to open smaller plants at the Divisional headquarters.
The project consists of 4 gas tanks with a capacity of 50 metric tons each, one fire water tank l, One gas filling hall, one generator, one product and fire pumping station, two nitrogen and air compressors, one engineering building, one clinic, one cafeteria, one playground, two security buildings, two weigh bridges.
This according to the General Manager of the Hydrocarbons prices stabilisation fund, Okie Johnson who remarked that this plant is the most modern in the country. This after that of Maroua in 2005 and Bertoua in 2015.
With a total population of above 2.5 million people, the North West according City Mayor Paul Achombong of the Bamenda City Council, provides a ready market and its completion will curb the black market syndrome that has caused the region to be losing significantly to middlemen.
"To every gas bottle sold, the region loses nothing fewer than 2000 frs. This means as the prices surge in the gas sector, the region loses about 2.8 billion in a year.
"This explains why the project is timely and needs to be completed in record time." Mayor Paul Achombong explained to the Minister.
He went further to propose to the Minister to help curb water shortage in Bamenda by constructing a 30 metric ton of tank up the hills of Bangshie. This he says will reduce the dependence of water in coming in from Mbatu and community water projects championed by subdivisional councils.
Didactic materials handed to representatives of Mezam and other Divisions
Minister Gaston Eloundou Essomba and the General Manager of the National Hydrocarbons stabilisation fund handed didactic material to all the 7 Divisions of the North West, the Bamenda I council and the North West Regional Assembly as part of their social-corporate responsibility.
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Ndi Tsembom Elvis and Anye Nde Nsoh
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