At the Port of Kribi in southern Cameroon, flatbed trucks waiting to enter the port for loading stretch bumper to bumper for several kilometers, while vehicles leaving the port head inland fully loaded with cargo.

Fifteen years ago, Cameroonian President Paul Biya pledged that the Port of Kribi would become an important gateway for Cameroon and indeed the entire Central African sub-region to the Gulf of Guinea, at the groundbreaking ceremony for Phase I of the project. Today, that vision has become a reality.

This port was constructed and operated by China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC). In 2011, when the CHEC team arrived at the project site in Cameroon, they had to pass through narrow and bumpy paths, said Gu Gaobai, the general manager of the CHEC Cameroon project.

The construction period of the first phase of the port project is from 2011 to 2014, and that of the second phase is from 2019 to 2024. The small beaches have now been developed into a "Pearl of the Gulf of Guinea" covering an area of 26,000 hectares, including an industrial zone.

Since 2018, the industrial zone has attracted nearly 400 billion Central African francs in investment, issued over 90 permits for entry, and 18 enterprises have started operation.

The container throughput of the port exceeded 555,000 TEUs in 2025, and the total cargo volume in 2024 surpassed 12.7 million tons. Goods flow from Kribi to Gabon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville) and Equatorial Guinea.

The construction and operation of the port not only improved the local infrastructure but also helped train a group of local employees. According to Gu, there were up to 2,000 local employees at the port project. Nowadays, these skilled workers continue to work on the construction of the industrial zone.

On the way to urban Kribi, vehicles are coming and going, pedestrians are walking, and shops and restaurants line both sides of the road. A local resident said that Kribi used to feel more like a village, with just one narrow dirt road. Now the roads are wide, shops have multiplied along the streets, and the port and related industries have created many jobs and business opportunities. "The Port of Kribi has transformed the entire city — and it has transformed my life too."