CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background to the Study

Ports in many countries are not only transport interfaces for the transfer of goods between land and sea but as generators of economic and industrial activities. The ‘port authority’ is the organization responsible for the planning, authorization, coordination and control of services within the port. In some instances, it also provides services. Port authorities have been designated to manage the port. They are involved in the day to day management as well as on the mid and long-term planning. Seaports, as important nodes in maritime transport, have a significant influence on the economic, social, and environmental development of countries on a local, regional, and national level. A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbours where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves (Dwarakisha and Akhil, 2015). Port authorities have traditionally been responsible for the development and improvement of the port area related to port operations, ranging from infrastructure development and maintenance to the marketing and management of port facilities. Acting as a port managing body, port authority takes over public, commercial and economic roles. Several objectives of the general interest of society are followed by the port authorities, such as: promoting trade and industry, ensuring long-term sustainable port operation, improving maritime and hinterland connectivity. In the last decade, new developments in port strategies have emerged around the world: port authorities are changing their nature and function, increasingly taking an active role in the management of logistics systems and sometimes adopting management and entrepreneurial behaviors. These port authorities contribute drastically to the growth of a country both socially, economically and financially. Even though they carry out their activities smoothly, they are always faced with some challenges which slow down the smooth functioning of the port area. A lack of research and scientific papers offering a comprehensive overview of the contribution of port authorities to an economy and the difficulties they face in managing the port has led us to this study of port authorities’ contributions and their challenges. The goals of this paper are to research on port authority’s contributions and their difficulties. This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing literature, providing a better understanding of the contributions of port authorities to an economy and their difficulties in port governance.

1.2. Delimitation of the Study

The study is concentrated in the Douala and covers the Douala Seaport. The study will cover and focus on analyzing the contributions of seaport authority to the economy of the country and the challenges they face in port governance and confines itself on the types of port authorities, their roles and the challenges they face in the course of port governance.

1.3. Statement of the Problem

Although port authorities serve as facilitator in the importation and exportation of goods at the seaport, lack of infrastructures in carrying out these activities is one of the major constraints to economic growth of this port area as ships spend days to carryout offloading and loading of goods. The problematic issues encompass the following: the port lack adequate infrastructure (superstructure and transport network), which is a major obstacle for the port authorities towards achieving its full economic growth potential. Apart from the physical infrastructure, there is also malfunctioning regulatory systems, poor governance and policies, unequitable distribution of investment projects and poor management by the port authority. These factors translate into poor port efficiency, and also raising trade cost in Cameroon (importation and exportation). The country launched a reform of the maritime sector in 1998, which led to the creation of the Cameroon national port authority which is in charge of defining the strategic policy of the maritime sector and planning the development of port activities in the port area and the country at large (Camilla, 2018). Still in the framework of the reforms, autonomous ports were created for each of the ports, with the exception of the port of Garoua which was transferred to the town council.

The responsibilities of the autonomous ports include the management of ports infrastructures and their commercial exploitation (Munge, 2019). Despites all these efforts and measures put in place by the government, the port of Douala just like any other port is supposed to bring about development to its immediate population and the nation. But the area still remains underdeveloped despite the important roles they play in development. The question is why? This led us to the main problem of our research work, which is the contribution of seaport authority and challenges in carrying out development in the city of Douala and the country at large. Today, by far the greatest growth in port developments is in Asia, the continent with some of the world largest ports such as Singapore and Shanghai. The success of most cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and Rotterdam are attributed to the presence of the ports in the area and they have witnessed rapid growth (Munge, 2019). This is not the case with the port of Douala which was among one of the most important ports during the colonial days.

1.4. Main Question

1.4.1.  Main Research Question

What are the contributions of port authority and what are the challenges they face?

1.4.2. Specific Questions

1. What are the functions of port authority?
2. What are the contributions of port authority to the economy of the country?

• What are the challenges faced by port authority in carrying out port activities?

1.5. Research Objective

1.5.1. Main Objective

The main objective of this study is to analyze the contribution of Douala seaport authority in the Douala seaport.

1.5.2. Specific Objectives

1. To identify the functions of port authority.
2. To determine the contributions of port authority to the economy of a country.

To examine the challenges face by port authority in carrying out port activities