The group with Cameroonian capital, Neptune Holding Company, plans to invest 400 billion CFA francs for the construction of a tire manufacturing plant in the locality of Bomono, not far from Douala. 4.6 million tires will be produced per year.
The first Cameroonian brand car tire manufacturing plant will be built in Bomono, in the Littoral region. Start-up work will begin next October and end in 2025, according to sources close to the promoters of this project. The tires known under the brand name “Afri Star” will be intended for both heavy vehicles (Tbr tires) and passenger cars (Pcr tires), we learned. The Cameroon Tires Factory (CTF), a new subsidiary of the Neptune Holding Company Group, will provide 2,500 direct jobs and at least 5,000 indirect jobs, both in the infrastructure construction phase and in the commissioning and maintenance phase. operation of the factory.
The group Neptune Holding Company, which specializes in the distribution of hydrocarbons in Cameroon, benefits from the support of the Finnish firm Black Donuts, according to sources. The cost of investments is estimated at 600 million euros, or 400 billion CFA francs. The capital of the Cameroon Tires Factory is one billion CFA francs. On April 29, the main promoter of the project, Antoine Ndzengue, who is also CEO of the Neptune Holding Company group, and his Finnish partner, were received in audience by the Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana.
The Minister welcomed the initiative, indicating that “the Cameroon Tires Factory will help the CDC to relaunch its production”. According to this authority, the CTF project will make it possible to implement the import-substitution policy. “The government will spare no effort to support you in securing this market,” he added.
Partnerships
Commercial banks established in Cameroon, such as Afriland First Bank, Ecobank Cameroon, Bgfi Bank Cameroon and Banque Atlantique Cameroon will contribute to the financial structuring of the project under the coordination of Structure Finance Group (SFG), a subsidiary of Société Générale, and in partnership with the Development Bank of Central African States (Bdeac). The Societe Generale subsidiary will therefore be responsible for syndicating the financing of the project. Cameroonian SMEs and SMIs will be involved in the project through subcontracts, and will have to win in terms of technology transfer.
The Cameroon Development Corporation, for its part, will provide the raw material, rubber from the harvests carried out in the rubber plantations of the CDC, and the employees of this company should also gain in terms of training. Hence the satisfaction of the CEO of the agro-industrial company, Franklin Ngoni Njié, for whom this project “will give a boost to the activities of the CDC”. Pending the implementation of the plant construction project, the Neptune Group markets the “Double Star” tire with the technical assistance of Double Star Industry, which operates in the tire industry.
