TITLE:
Socio-Economic Impact of Tarring the Cameroon Section of the Lagos-Mombasa Trans African HighWay through Mamfe in Manyu Division
AUTHORS:
Elvis Kah, Gregory Ndip Bate
KEYWORDS:
TAHW, Transformation, Economy, Decline, Growth, Mamfe, Cameroon
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.8,
August
28,
2020
ABSTRACT: The town of Mamfe in Manyu Division used to be
an important socio-economic and political hub in former
British Southern Cameroons, and the then West Cameroon geo-politics. Shortly
after independence and reunification, it became noticeably clear that the town
had switched from relative to absolute decline. This was so because the
economic capital of the territory at the time had moved east from Lagos to
Douala. Its derelict social infrastructure and road network that ensued from
its absolute decline contributed in plunging the town and the entire division
into inaccessibility and enclavement. The tarring of the Cameroon section of
the Lagos-Mombasa Trans African HighWay (TAHW) came as a long awaited relief to
the Manyu people. It opened up not only this region and the backside of this
part of the country, but revamped and restored the lost glory Mamfe town once
enjoyed. This study aimed at evaluating impact of the TAHW on the
socio-economic and environmental development of Mamfe town in particular and
Manyu Division in general. The method employed to achieve the desired results
combined both secondary and primary sources of data collected from the field,
the topographic map of Mamfe and the population data for 2005. Field
observations, interviews, administration of questionnaire to randomly selected
road construction workers, company officials, administrative officers, elites,
politicians, and the local population characterised the data collection. The
results revealed that with the tarring of the TAHW across Mamfe, the
socio-economic and physical transformation was visible just for one year.
Internal and external mobility was not only faster but at cheaper rates too.
Small businesses expanded; customs revenue was collected at Ekok qua-doubled and Mamfe became an important centre for many socio-cultural and
political activities. The Anglophone crises that sparked off in the
latter half of 2016 halted all these achievements.