ABSTRACT

A study that was conceived from the problems of delays in clearance, high clearance cost, etc.   Faced by workers at the Douala sea port during the investigator period of internship. To that effect, the topic “the development of the Douala sea port and its socio-economic implications” was chosen with specific objectives; to assess the challenges faced by the management of the port, the strategies needed to foster socio-economic development of the region and to assess the socio-economic implications of the port to the area. In order to accomplish these objectives, a case study research design was used with a sample size of 50 respondent’s selected using purposive and simple random sampling technique after the necessary ethical considerations were done. The method of data collection used was questionnaires, observation and interview. The data was quantified and presented in the form of text, tables, chart and pictures. The results from the data analysis showed that; the management of the port faces challenges such as clearance delays, high clearing cost, congestion at the terminal, etc. Strategies like; reduction of clearing procedure, employment of more workers, organization and modernization of terminals, etc. were suggested by the respondents.  It was also found out that the Douala port has both positive (job creation, provision of shipping services, etc.) and negative (noise from industry, pollution, etc.) implications on the area. It was therefore recommended that a standard maintenance committee should be put in place by the authorities of the port to ensure conformity to the international maritime law. This will help solve problem like high cost of clearance, etc

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Seaport remains the most feasible for the activities of terminal, where loading and off-loading
of water vehicles ,vessel, ships, ferries and all activities to ensure that what comes in or go out
are checked to meet the national and international rules and regulation guiding port activities.
It is also a point of revenue generation and tax payment on goods and services rendered. Port
is always located by the sea shore to enable ships and other water vehicles and documentation
with interaction for both land and water transportation activities take place. The need for
seaport / terminal is of economic functioning and technological movement and transfer of
goods and services, with modern technology equipment and Professional management ability.
This has strong impacts on the building or construction of seaport for economic development,
international trade, and distribution. Bamide (2017) There are thousands of ports of
different types and sizes, Globally, with the aim of capturing some market share of freight
by sea. The type of port. Its size, facilities, infrastructure available, and its location, have great
impact on its operations. Ports are area that are attached to sea, ocean, river by connecting
waterways as essentially requirement.

The water transportation has the capacity to carry the heaviest load than any mode of
transportation, these made it necessary for the construction of a sea- port to be technically
structured in a way to meet the demand of international maritime organization rules and
regulations. This is due to the fact that difference sizes, weight, high volume of goods are
passing through the sea port for on-ward freight forwarding and distribution. There are
many allied business activities of economic impact at the seaport and it confirmed that
positive relationship exists between global trade, port activities, economic growth and
development.
Seaport development unlocks many investment potentials and commercial opportunity to
emerge. This is to justify the need for sea port with modern infrastructure and equipment
for operation to meet intermodal system. The size of seaport determines the type of water
vehicle (ship, boat, ferry and vessels) that can come to the location has better advantage for
hosting a seaport than other seaport created for the purpose of meeting the need of that
nation where it near a sea-shore. The chosen of a seaport location aid it design and
construction to meet demand of global economic activities and the turn- around of water
vehicles and cargo clearances for distribution. The environmental community in any seaport
area usually have economic revolution growth and expansion, development with migration
urban increase in population and traffic. For a seaport to be functional, it has to have
infrastructure, space, warehousing, equipment, communication and monitoring signal equipment
to meet the unexpected vehicle and activities of the sea-port.

The size of the land, the road network at the seaport, the segmentation of the seaport area:-
Terminal for handling different cargo, loading of different goods and off-loading points at
different terminal points of operation. A modern and efficient maritime infrastructure at
seaport is critical to security, economic development, maritime transportation, and cargo
European Journal of Logistics, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management movement, vessels operation for freight management supply chains serviced by liner vessels Facilities around the world to achieve the economic desired goal of developing a multi-modal, safe, efficient effective , world –class seaport, that would meet the needs of a modern, vibrant , industrial economy and be a seaport hub for maritime transportation and commercial system, requires an investments in seaport infrastructure at the Federal, Terminal at state and jetties at local government level are needed to be coordinated, well integrated and aligned with one another on a sustainable basis for such a port, Oni  (2003) The challenges of seaport industry is constantly changing in response to and in anticipation of global economic dynamics manifested by environmental and evolutions in shipping:- Vessel sizes, speed, specialization and services, substantial cargo traffic growth, packaging techniques, cargo- handling equipment, Radical change in information, climate, and communication systems and commercial practices, standard in safety and environment management, port management system, private sector investors and Operators.
Countries that are unable to cope with such rapidly advancing infrastructural realities, will
find out that they are not in a position to foster economic development of their trade sector
being the principal facilitator of 95 percent of the world trade including oil and Gas. In its high stakeholder engagement ratio for policy and regulations and it’s challenging technical
principles and applications. Badejo (2012) the substantial growth of maritime shipping has
resulted in large quantities of goods and products being transported around the world, creating
a demand for innovative solutions for infrastructure and fleets. A further increase in the
scale and the size of container carriers and passenger cruisers also requires special facilities.
These developments have presented a challenge for different types of technologies, as well
as operational system. Maritime transportation, should be integrated with other services, such
as railways, roadways and airports, while in some cases rivers, canal traffic in order to
achieve maximum efficiency. Owoputi (2018).

Sea port needs to respond rapidly to the economic and political circumstance in different
parts of the world. The research into the deeper and natural sea- harbor in the coastal belt of
Ondo Ogun state coastline indicate that the land and sea belt of Olokola area could be
developed into a sea-port hub for west Africa region. Looking at the location, a global goals
and objectives with economic resources, viability of deep-water of natural seaport
construction should be considered, the size of the water, land and position of the location
for West Africa coastal region and industrial development and large inter- land network
for trades shipping, and cargo redistribution, will greatly take care in the planning with
the numerous mineral deposit in that region yet untapped, i.e. Bitumen, oil and gas.
The extensive trade networks of the global trade shipping world has contributed largely to
the success of seaport development and civilization spanning wider than before. With the
resources they need to sustain settled population levels in the several cities of the world
over Musso- Enrico (2006). Seaports played an immense role in trade, commerce, and
politics even during early ages. A harbor is a place where ships can seek shelter , while
“ Shelter “ must include Anchorages , landing places on beaches and ports with structures
commodities and equipment, ship sheds and shipways for ship. Seaports location are selected
to optimize access to land and navigable water for commercial demand and for shelter
from wind and waves. Harbour can be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor has
deliberately constructed break waters, sea walls or jetties or otherwise, they could have
been constructed by dredging and these require maintenance by further periodic dredging.
A natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by prominences of land. Seaports are
one of the primary components of the general transportation sector and are nowadays linked
to the expanding world economy.

The mutual benefit of port has been established in the economic development of both local and
national which states that in spite of job cuts in traditional port activities such as warehousing,
ship repair, stevedoring bunkering, freight forwarding the seaport remains sustainable as it gives
a long-term basis on it functions of many different kinds of allied business are expected to develop in the local area. The (seaport maritime) activities has a relatively close relationship with both urban and port system in Nigeria. The transportation activities facilities foreign trade,
Technology in transport system to enhance interdependency among economies in the
global world. This is through the support of seaport. The European regions Bottasso et, la (2014) analyzed the important of seaports activity on the regional GDP [ 621 regions] and focusing on it spillover effects on the neighbouring regions. He indicate that ports tend to increase GDP in the area, where they are located (direct effects) and effect positively the GDP of nearby nations. The seaport development Enable favourable infrastructure for investment Increase country’s shipping connectivity Expand higher purchasing Expand goods at lower prices Foreign Direct investment Foreign Trade Traffic International Trading firms Logistics and transport companies Value added Agricultural Sector Value added manufacturing sector Economic Growth Value added Services Sector Seaport Development European Journal of Logistics, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Vol.8 No.1, pp.19-34, March 2020 Published by ECRTD UK ISSN 2054-0930 (Print), ISSN 2054-0949 (Online) could affect the economic growth through many channels It is expected that seaports affect economic sectors and afterward the economic growth. The term “Cartelistic for economic growth “includes all the change as regards the demand for goods and services, and contribution to tax revenue, employment that can be attributed directly and indirectly to the transport infrastructure presences Carlucci  (2009).

Seaports are basically a means of integration into the global economic system. The maritime
sector encompasses a wide range of services, pilotage, towing and tug assistances emergency
repairs, anchorage berth and berthing services and other auxiliary or allied supporting
services. Within the port area, a great diversity of activities are performed, infrastructure
services generally provided by port authorities. Cargo handling services in most ports
provided by port authorities, cargo handling services. Sea conveyance is the cheapest way
of transportation when considered in terms of fuel consumption and investment. When
compared to other transportation systems railways transportation requires twice as much
energy consumption, while road transportation requires ten times as much as sea conveyance.
In the past few decades, the world has become increasingly environmentally conscious
and with its lower energy consumption, marine transportation is obviously more environmentally friendly than others means. Dwarakish et,al., (2015).

The international trade regime allowed manufacturers to relocate their production and
assembly plants to a more cost- efficient locations in developing economies, in turn
generating a new spatial division of labour. Massey (1984). The seaport is the medium
through which goods originating from and destined for different parts of the world are
transported. Seaports in relation to trade are major gateways to the economy of nations
hence, it plays an important role in the development of the country.

Among the transportation infrastructure, seaports have been massively studied in the recent
years Contributes to the economic growth. Recently the findings of these studies showed
that there are positive relationship between seaport investment and economic growth.
Most previous researchers used a production function approach to estimate the effects of
seaport investment infrastructure on economic growth. In China and Korea, it estimated
the effects of seaport on economic growth using time series data. A significant and positive
effect of the seaport on the economic growth is found in many nations. Uniquely for
China, Song et,al., (2014) concluded that seaport has a positive effect on state or regional
economic growth, but with obvious differences at the regional and provincial level. In
china as well Shan (2014) have confirmed the positive impact. On the whole three
conclusions were made. The seaport containerized cargo flow of larger seaports is more
significantly associated with the economy than that of smaller ones. The number
of cargo through out of competing seaports exhibits a positive effect on a nation economy
.The seaport cargo throughput significantly impacts the host state or communities
economic growth. For the Tunisian seaport, JouiliT (2014) concluded that seaports play globally a key role in the economic growth. He shows that seaport have a significant impact on the economic growth, the elasticity of seaport infrastructure is 0.072. This elasticity reflects
the global impact of seaport infrastructure on the economic growth, while it cannot reflect
seaport’s contribution in the growth sectors. European Journal of Logistics, Purchasing and Supply chain management

Cameroon has a pivotal place within central African economic grouping, providing important access routes to seaports on the Gulf of Guinea for its landlocked neighbors. It’s economic and demographic weight as well as its strategic position at the heart of CEMAC makes Cameroon the central African natural locomotive. A leadership that the Central Africa Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and chad could not contest because even combined, these countries hardly achieve the economic importance of Cameroon, which alone accounts for 52 percent of CEMACs GDP. Commercially, Cameroon serve as a locomotive, if not almost the only country in the area which exports to all other central African countries, without importing anything from its neighbors. Thus, it serves as a natural hub for the region, since it has one of the most important largest trading hub in central Africa that is the port of Douala. Ports in Cameroon are now used as a distribution stop over point for goods bound for chad and the Central African Republic, and its upgraded facilities are contributing to the trade of these neighboring countries proceeding more smoothly (Douala Port). Cameroon is a port state with over nine ports, out of which, only few are operational and the Douala Bonaberi port is the principal one. Although not blessed with much navigable rivers and natural seaports, the population of Cameroon depends so much on the ports for their physical mobility and for the transportation of bulky goods, and also manufacture goods from Europe and were head loaded to the hinterlands.

Douala seaport is deep-sea port of considerable size which was constructed by a German plantation company, where several vessels load and discharge at the port. It was considered as the focal points for regional development, as it attracted many people from other cities into the city of Douala for employment, so as to improve the lives of their families (Nkwi, 2017). Also this port attracted the presence of many industries in the area like the rubber factory, banana plantation and the iron foundry. This port speeds up the insertion of the domestic economy in the international economy, as it brought about many traders from neighboring countries like Nigeria, Sierra Leon and host of others who came for trading purposes, consequently contributing economically to the country. Accordingly, ports continue to play economic, social and political roles in any given nation.  

1.2 Statement of the research problem

Although Cameroon serve as a natural hub in the CEMAC region due to its strategic location, inefficiencies at its ports represent a major constraint to growth. The problematic issues encompass the following: most of these ports lack adequate infrastructure, which is a major obstacle towards achieving its full economic growth potential. The poor infrastructure at the Douala port is slowing down its economic development and results in a low level of intra African trade and trade with other regions. Apart from the physical infrastructure, there is also poor governance and policies that means they are centralized around the idea of not only corruption within the system but lack of transparency and cheating of those who are governed, inequitable distribution of investment projects that is some area at the port are been insured project for developments to be carried out that others and poor management that is managers at the port causes more damage. These factors translate into poor port efficiency, and also raising trade cost in Cameroon.

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
country (Camilla, 2018). Still in the framework of the reforms, autonomous ports were
created for each of the ports, with the exception of the one 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. 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. The investigator during his internship at the Douala sea port from May 2022 to June 2022, noticed that with most of the consignors and consignees he interacted with, they complained of delays of their goods at the ports, high costs of clearance, long procedures established by the management of the ports which they must go through before having their goods cleared at the ports, etc. To this effect, the investigator was therefore curious to look critical into these problems in relation to the management of the port and to assess then socio-economic contributions of the port to the development of the region and the nation.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 Main Research Question

• How has the port of Douala contributed in fostering socio economic development in the Littoral region of Cameroon?

1.3.2 Specific questions:

• How can the port of Douala effectively and efficiently act as a tool for the socio economic development of the region?
• What are the challenges undermining or hindering the management of the port to permit it enhance the development of the area socio economically?
• What measures can be taken by the management of Douala port and other stakeholders involved in the field of maritime to overcome these challenges?

1. 4 Research Objectives

1.4.1 Main objective

• To appraise the contribution of Douala port to the socio economic development of the Littoral Region.

1.4.2 Specific objectives

• To identify some of the challenges faced by the management of the port in relation to the development of the area.
• To outline potential strategies capable of enabling the Douala port to efficiently and effectively foster socio-economic development of the region.
• To examine the socio-economic implications of the Doula sea port.