Images Of Deborah Sampson

Abdoulantang Jacob: Architect and Contractor

CBEC The group he founded and runs for 10 years announces 100 upmarket homes in Yaounde.
For Junior Binyam

It seems already accustomed to the surprise shown by his interlocutors when he gives his age. A wry smile, he repeated: "I have 40 years next year." Indeed, with its elongated silhouette, his face gaunt and care it takes to suppress any hair on his chin and his upper lip, Jacob Abdoulantang does not age. Yet this architect trained in China between 1988 and 1994 already justifies considerable experience. After his return to Cameroon in 1995, he started in business with a colleague. Meanwhile, he is involved in a project to adapt the traditional architecture of the Far North and in urban areas. He hopes the next three years as a book, put his work available to the public.

Abdoulantang Jacob decides in 1996, a year before its registration with the National Order of Architects of Cameroon (NACE), to make its own account. Drops Group CBEC, based at headquarters in Yaoundé Elig-Essono and specializes in architecture, the arts and urban studies. " In 1998, it combines two other architects in the business. Andre Palou, his high school classmate of Maroua, trained at the University of Mons in Belgium and who, at loose ends since her return to Cameroon in 1996, had resolved to return to earth in his Far North home. Dandjouma Ibrahim, meanwhile, studied architecture in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. On reconciling influences resulting from their training in different countries, Jacob Abdoulantang recognizes that "there are lines architecture that are not always the same, but we managed to find a compromise. "


Project Group CBEC helps its customers in monitoring and obtaining building permits, specifications, plans and even construction. In the latter case, we must offer attractive prices. "Before the rising prices of building materials for housing, we will charge the construction requirements to 90,000 CFA francs per square meter. This unit price could go up to 240,000 CFA francs for a mid-range home. Right now, we make adjustments based on fluctuations in the market, "explains Christian 7th Day Adventist, that modesty led him to despise the name of Dg.

past three years, he welcomed an improvement in the sector that is his, although the State which, elsewhere, is the locomotive in investment in the construction sector is still lagging behind. Despite the modesty of his business, he never ceases to proclaim, sometimes the group CBEC, who was present at Promote 2005, through the engineer responsible for carrying out the work, employs more than 100 people. A workforce that will multiply with the launch in the coming weeks, construction 100-unit upmarket in Yaounde. The Dg Group CBEC is nevertheless shows very little to say about this project, the identity of the site that will allow it and its partners.

To justify his reluctance, he mentions a previous experiment in which he was involved. This is a draft US-Cameroonian construction of 1000 housing units to Nyom in the western outskirts of Yaounde, which has hit the rocks formed, he said, by the Land Bank and the government's approval to secure the site. Jacob Abdoulantang, in effect, "the private will not invest in social housing with no support and facilities offered by the state. "