The construction of the bridge, entrusted to the Razel Cameroun–Razel Fayat–Sotcocog consortium, was officially launched in late February 2020 in Bongor by the late Chadian President Idriss Déby and Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Nguté.
According to a letter from Cameroon’s Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, addressed to the Governor of the Far North Region and consulted by Investir au Cameroun, the 620-meter bridge connecting Yagoua and the Chadian town of Bongor will be inaugurated on Monday, April 28, 2025.
With a total cost of 92 billion CFA francs (approximately 160 million USD), the project includes 14.2 km of access roads — 7.4 km on the Chadian side — as well as related infrastructure such as signaling systems and border posts. It was financed through a €40 million grant (around 26 billion CFA francs) from the European Union and a loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB), which will be repaid 58% by Cameroon and 42% by Chad.
This is the second bridge linking the two countries, after the Nguéli Bridge connecting Kousseri (also in Cameroon’s Far North region) to Chad’s capital, N’Djamena. The new infrastructure is expected to further boost trade flows. According to customs statistics, approximately 350 billion CFA francs worth of Chadian goods transit through Cameroon each year via the Douala–N’Djamena corridor.
“Cameroon’s geostrategic position places our country at the heart of integration efforts within the CEMAC zone. An improved Ngaoundéré–Garoua road section will undoubtedly increase cross-border trade by significantly boosting traffic along the Garoua–Maroua–Kousseri–N’Djamena axis or the Garoua–Magada–Yagoua–Bongor–N’Djamena axis,” said Cameroon’s Minister of Economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey.
He made this statement during the signing of a financing agreement with the AfDB for over 216 billion CFA francs, aimed at rehabilitating the 246 km Ngaoundéré–Garoua road, part of the Douala–N’Djamena corridor.
Source : Agence Ecofin
