(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon and Chad will inaugurate a new cross-border bridge today April 28, 2025, marking a major step forward for regional infrastructure and trade. Stretching 620 meters over the Logone River, the bridge links the city of Yagoua in Cameroon’s Far North region with Bongor in Chad.
The announcement came in a formal letter sent on April 21 to the regional governor by Cameroon’s Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi. “It is my honor to inform you that the Prime Ministers of the Republic of Cameroon and the Republic of Chad will inaugurate the bridge on the Logone River on April 28 in Yagoua,” the minister wrote.
Construction officially began on February 27, 2020, with a ceremony in Bongor led by the late Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno and Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute. The work was awarded to a consortium made up of Razel Cameroun, Razel Fayat, and Sotcocog, with an initial schedule of 36 months.
This is the second bridge to link the two countries, following the Nguéli Bridge, which connects Kousseri in Cameroon to the Chadian capital, N’Djamena. The Yagoua-Bongor project cost CFA74 billion and was funded by a loan from the African Development Bank and a €40 million grant (about CFA26 billion) from the European Union. Cameroon and Chad will share the repayment burden, with Cameroon covering 58% and Chad 42%.
But the project goes beyond the bridge itself. According to the African Development Bank, it also includes 14.2 km of access roads — 7.4 km in Chad and 6.8 km in Cameroon — as well as key support infrastructure such as customs posts and road signage. This brings the total investment to around CFA92 billion.
The bridge is expected to play a strategic role in strengthening trade flows between the two neighbors. Customs data shows that about CFA350 billion worth of Chadian goods pass through Cameroon each year via the Douala–Ndjamena corridor.
“The geostrategic position of Cameroon places our country at the heart of CEMAC integration efforts,” said Cameroon’s Minister of Economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey. He spoke on March 24, 2025, in Yaoundé, during the signing of a CFA216 billion financing deal with the African Development Bank for the rehabilitation of the Ngaoundéré–Garoua road — a key section of the corridor.
“Improving the Ngaoundéré–Garoua segment will undoubtedly boost cross-border trade by increasing traffic along routes like Garoua–Maroua–Kousseri–N’Djamena and Garoua–Magada–Yagoua–Bongor–N’Djamena,” the minister added.
With the new bridge in place, both countries are looking to turn improved infrastructure into real economic opportunity — not just between Yagoua and Bongor, but across the wider CEMAC region.
