Olembé Complex: Cameroon and Magil move to patch up their dispute

A glimmer of hope is shining over the Olembé Sports Complex in Yaoundé. Work on the venue that hosted the opening match and the final of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations has been at a standstill for almost a year, but it is due to restart in the course of this month, October. That follows a memorandum of understanding the Cameroonian state has just signed with the company Magil Construction. It is a crucial breakthrough that ends months of wrangling between the two parties.

After months of negotiation and arbitration, the Cameroonian government and Magil have decided to draw a line under the dispute that had paralysed the project since March 2023. A record of conciliation, drawn up on 8 August 2023 with the active involvement of the Cameroonian Task Force dedicated to the project, finally paved the way for the signing of a settlement agreement.

Magil makes a fresh commitment

Magil Construction, still determined to see the Olembé Sports Complex through to completion, has presented a schedule for restarting activity. "This commitment is part of a roadmap that will allow the remaining work on the main stadium and the construction of the ancillary facilities to be completed within a relatively short timeframe", the company promises.

According to the subsidiary of the Fayolle group, next week will see the start of work to address outstanding snags, the remobilisation of staff, and the return of the equipment needed to continue and finish the work. This welcome progress brings delivery of the project closer, a moment Cameroon has been eagerly awaiting.

Reconciliation after the accusations

It should be recalled that the dispute between Cameroon and Magil Construction had been taken to the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris (ICC) in March 2023. A month later, the ICC ruled in Magil's favour, ordering Cameroon to pay 23.3 million euros (a little over 15 billion CFA francs), along with a daily penalty of 20,000 euros in the event of delay.

At the time, Cameroon's Minister of Sports accused Magil of having put in place "schemes to artificially inflate its services by slowing down the work, stopping it outright, overbilling, double billing, exponential pay for expatriate staff, etc.". He then resolved not to pay the company another franc, as it had, in his view, already received payments estimated at nearly 42 billion CFA francs (more than 64 million euros).

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Signed in 2020 for a total of 54.822 billion CFA francs (more than 83.6 million euros), the project includes the construction of a shopping centre, a 5-star hotel with 70 rooms, an Olympic swimming pool, a covered gymnasium with 2000 seats, two basketball courts, two volleyball courts and four tennis courts.

Arthur Wandji