First, the diagnostic phase. A Cemac team is beginning a tour of the six countries to take stock of the situation, identify the strengths of each and areas where transnational projects can be developed.

Antoine Dembi Duval, director of industrial development, mines and tourism at the Cemac Commission, is currently on a mission in Douala. By way of example, he points to a paradox: Cameroon continues to purchase bauxite from abroad, the raw material used to manufacture aluminium, even though the country is home to a deposit with potential worthy of the world's largest projects.

Another paradox: Central Africa imports agricultural fertilisers that it could manufacture locally using the potash available in Congo.

A regional policy will aim, he explains, to industrialise the mining sector step by step and by segment, by transforming raw materials on site. A pooling of resources to manufacture alloys for construction materials in particular.

A long-term process because to develop a regional mining market, questions of energy and transport must also be resolved.

The next step for Antoine Dembi Duval and the Cemac team: Chad. And at the end of his regional tour, the drafting of an initial document, which is to be presented in early 2023.

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