Bitumage de l’axe routier Batchenga-Ntui-Yoko et retombées socioéconomiques sur les territoires traversés.

Abstract

This thesis proposes to evaluate the socioeconomic impacts of the asphalting of the Batchenga-Ntui-Yoko road section on the territories crossed. Indeed, in a world where road infrastructure is primordial for the movement of goods and people from urban centers to the peripheral areas, and vice versa, the Central African region in general and Cameroon in particular still presents a mediocre road network with low volumes of passenger and merchandise transport. According to the French Development Agency (2020), the asphalted network is low (15% of the total length). Only half of Cameroon’s road network is practicable, due to low levels of maintenance (despite the efforts made these recent years), and only 27% of the rural population has access to all seasons road. Hence the need to open up the hinterland, especially the northern part of the Centre region, a large agricultural production basin that has long remained on the margins of development currents and above all, an easier connection with the Northern Cameroon, creating many socio-economic transformations in the municipalities crossed by the national road NH15. Based on a hypothetico-deductive approach, the use of data from secondary sources, direct observation, interviews and a questionnaire survey of 115 households, this work highlights the current state of asphalting of the Batchenga-Ntui-Yoko road and the difficulties encountered. It appears that Batchenga-Ntui (23.5km) has already been asphalted at 100%, and put into service since 2020, 82km are almost asphalted between Mankim and Yoko, about 74% of asphalting rate in 2024 for that third segment, Ntui-Ndjolé (60km) and Ndjolé-Mankim (36.7km) sections are still being asphalted (70%). The delay in terms of advancement is due to technical, financial, material, physical and human problems. Among the socio-economic impacts of the asphalting of this road axis, there is a diversification of economic activities such as agriculture, transport, trade with a remarkable availability of basic necessities as well as the reduction or increase of their prices on the market, hotels and restaurants. However, the tarring of this road has created some negative impacts on the population it serves such as social, socio-economic, urban and political problems. In other to optimize these socio- economic benefits and mitigate the negative impacts, some proposals are given, namely: to promote effective decentralization by allowing decentralized local authorities to be accountable for their management; to facilitate a synergy of actions between the actors and the various projects with a view to ensuring the sustainability of related infrastructures (corporate social responsibility) and those under construction for a better socio-economic impact; to develop income alternatives from activities related to the enhancement of the local natural heritage and to practice good governance by giving contracts to companies based on their skills and material capacities. Actions aimed at the retraining of people affected by the asphalting project and the fights against social problems are all proposals