The chief executive of Cameroon’s cotton development company Sodecoton, Mohammadou Bayero, says the state is not compensating the company adequately for maintaining rural roads in the North and Far North regions.
“We maintain more than 9,000 kilometers of rural roads each year to open up the three northern regions, except Adamawa where we are present only in a small part of Vina and not in Logone-et-Chari,” he said.
He estimates the annual cost at about CFA6.5 billion, while public compensation stands at around CFA2 billion. The CFA4.5 billion gap, he argues, reflects a recurring underpayment given the scale of the network maintained and the associated costs.
Declining Funding Levels
The criticism is directed primarily at the Ministry of Public Works, which has been linked to Sodecoton through a convention since 2005. Under that framework, the company maintains cotton-producing roads using funds allocated by the ministry, with the aim of ensuring access to production areas.
In 2007, the Ministry of Public Works allocated more than CFA4 billion to Sodecoton under the agreement. At the time, the funding came from France-backed debt relief and development contracts known as C2D. Since then, according to the company, allocations have declined.
In October 2022, the ministry signed a new agreement worth CFA200 million with Sodecoton. The contract covered the maintenance of 467 kilometers of cotton roads in the North and Far North regions, a much smaller scope than the volumes cited by the company.
A Public Service Role
Bayero describes the interventions as part of a broader public service mission that is insufficiently covered by state funding. “These are public service missions that are unfortunately not compensated at their true value,” he said.
He added that 7,000 kilometers of roads have already been maintained, with between 2,000 and 2,500 kilometers still to be covered. The question of compensation, he suggested, is central to the sustainability of the arrangement as maintenance needs remain high.
The state holds 89% of Sodecoton after acquiring the shares of French firm Geocoton in 2025 for CFA46 billion. The company says it employs 6,000 people, including 2,500 permanent staff, and supports 150,000 producers, representing about 3 million people.
In this context, the condition of rural roads directly affects the logistics of the cotton value chain and, more broadly, economic activity in the North and Far North regions.
Ludovic Amara
