Kribi is located at a strategic point on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. It is positioned at the end of a 1,070km pipeline transporting the production of oilfields near Doba in Chad to a floating storage and offloading vessel anchored off the Cameroon coast. The Kribi Industrial Port Complex has the export of extraction materials (minerals and petrochemicals) as its origin. Once completed, Kribi will be a 260sq-km city centered on a deep-sea port, with an extensive zone for heavy, medium and light industry. Surrounding this port and industry will be housing for 300,000 residents to be completed 2040. The spatial master plan, zoning plan and management strategy for Kribi were presented to the project’s national and international stakeholders in April 2012. The first phase of the port was ready for use in 2015. However, despite these early successes, there remains suspicion about the efficacy of Kribi, as big infrastructure projects have historically had minimal impact on the millions of citizens living below the poverty line.
