(Ecofin Agency) - The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) is now turning to the private sector to develop regional projects. The regional body has adopted a new public procurement strategy and a directive on public-private partnerships (PPP). This decision was announced during a workshop on PPPs held on January 28–29, in Douala, Cameroon.

“Without these regulations, implementing PPPs in the CEMAC region was difficult. Now that they are in place, we can expect infrastructure projects identified by the CEMAC Commission to be carried out with private sector involvement,” said Dieudonné Bondoma Yokono, head of the Contract Support Agency for Partnership Agreements (Carpa).

With this new framework, private companies from the six member states can now finance or bid for contracts to develop large-scale regional projects. Until now, these projects have been mainly funded by governments, regional banks, or international donors, who often require the use of foreign contractors.

By introducing a regional procurement strategy and a PPP directive, CEMAC is opening the door for local businesses to secure contracts, execute projects, and expand their portfolios. The development of these two regulatory texts took two and a half years and was financed with CFA655 million ($1 million), jointly provided by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the CEMAC Commission, each contributing CFA327.5 million.

The new procurement strategy focuses on both PPPs and public contracts. It outlines clear steps to facilitate infrastructure development in the region, incorporating two key elements. “The first is a planning methodology to better identify and select priority projects for PPPs. The second is a feasibility study for setting up a fund to finance project studies,” explained Carole Devidal, PPP specialist at Expertise France, a consulting firm under AFD that assisted in drafting the regulations.

For the Carpa president, this is a major step forward for CEMAC. “This means the private sector can now finance and implement large-scale regional projects. Given the scale of infrastructure needs, our governments simply do not have the budgets to meet these demands alone,” he said.

However, for the directive to take full effect, member states must incorporate it into their national laws within the next two years. According to the CEMAC Commission, this harmonization will help standardize PPP contracts and promote infrastructure development across the region.

One of the key initiatives benefiting from this reform is a group of 13 major regional projects. During a financing roundtable in Paris on November 28–29, 2023, CEMAC secured CFA6,034.8 billion in commitments, surpassing its CFA4,803 billion target, achieving a subscription rate of 104%. Among the planned projects is the construction of a single border checkpoint in Koutéré, a village on the Cameroon-Chad border.