Gov’t Calls for Respect of Norms in Cement Sector


The government has called on  economic operators to respect the norms governing the cement sector in Cameroon. The call was made last Friday, January 22 at the Douala Sawa Hotel by Jean Baptiste Tchoffo, President of the Technical Committee CT06 at the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development during the national sensitisation campaign on normalisation and the new norms on cement that held in the economic capital after Yaounde.

Speaking during the workshop that was attended by several cement importers or their representatives, the President of the Technical Committee CT06, provided participants with the definition of norm and condemned the fact many economic operators despite  the rules still work very hard  to invade the local market with cement of bad quality.

“The norm is a technical document established for repetitive usages which is approved by a body in charge of official normalisation and put in place by a group of experts representing the different socio-economic interests concerned”, he said. He made a strong declaration: “we can no longer agree to build houses, bridges, dams with fake building materials”.

According to Mr. Tchoffo, the use of fake products or bad quality materials in the construction sector exposes Cameroonians to a big danger. “You people are here in Douala; you were informed that a school collapsed in one of the neatest quarter here. Thank God, it happened during holidays. Do you imagine just a while what it would have caused if it took place during the start of the new school year? It is not surprising if an earthquake did not happen. It is forcefully these bad building materials, which are not in accordance with the norm that caused the collapse of the school. And cases like this are many. And we cannot fold our arms without doing something”, he said, with a lot of emotion.

Conscious of the fact most economic operators profit from the government’s inertia to bring into the national territory poor quality goods, the Sub-Director in the Department of normalisation and quality warned all those who are very active in importing fake cement. “Any product or any cement cargo recognised as being bad, or not respecting the new cement norms, shall simply be seized and destroyed at the Douala sea port. And its importer will pay all the fees related to its destruction. So those economic operators who all have turned into champions of poor quality are warned”, he declared.

Government, through the Technical Committee CT06, intends to continue with the sensitisation campaign that will end next February 8 when its President, Jean Baptiste Tchoffo, would have gone round the main towns of the country.  Speaking to The SUN’s reporter in Douala, Denis Piedjou, an expert who closely works with the said committee, underlined that the multiple problems plaguing the cement sector shall certainly disappear when every actor of the chain is sensitised and takes appropriate actions.

By Joseph Roland Djotié.