Nguti: Awaiting Kumba-Mamfe Road

Opening up the landlocked area will greatly boost agriculture which is the mainstay of the people.

Nguti is a small locality in the South West Region situated almost at equi-distance between Kumba and Mamfe, some 105 kilometres from Kumba along the road to Mamfe. It is the headquarters of a sub division that bears its name comprising some 54 villages and made up of four principal ethnic groups namely, the Balungs, Bassossi, Bakossi and Mbo. However, the indigenes of Nguti itself call themselves Bebums. Ebum in Nguti language means `tilapia` and the plural form is Bebum and Elati Bebum means the assembly or gathering of Bebums. The inspiration is drawn from the river Ehompe which cuts across the town and reputed to be full of tilapia.
For some time now Nguti has been shaking off the yoke of a village and is gradually but steadily taking the shape of a town. From an economy that was essentially based on hunting, fishing and farming, Nguti is beginning to diversify its economy, going in wood processing and palm oil production as well as commerce. Nguti is endowed with an immensely rich fauna and flora which has attracted both conservationists and forestry exploiters such as the World Wildlife Conservation Society, WCS, the Korup National Park which extends to Mundemba and the Banyang-Mbo sanctuary. Logging companies like Cameroon Industrial Forest, CIF, SEFECAM, WIGMA have all been coveting the luxuriant equatorial rain forest that pampers the locality. The soil is also very fertile which is not only good for the cultivation of foodstuffs and cash crops like cocoa and coffee but has also attracted agro industries like Heracles involved in palm oil production over a surface area of 13,000 hectares. There is also rubber production but not to a very large scale yet. Nguti is also reputed for its hospital, the Saint John of God hospital set up by Spanish missionaries which stands imposingly at the main junction of the emerging town.
The main quarters of the town are Nkapa with the pastoral mission, Eboubou-me known as the slave quarter. There is Saint Mary built by the Spanish missionaries for the staff of the Saint John of God hospital, Aquakake, Mamfe road, Grammar school and the Trans Malaysian street named after the timber company which built the third bridge over river Ehompe.
In order to ease the movement of people and property, the new administration of the council led by Tom George Enow has been maintaining roads and building culverts and bridges to open up the municipality which is about 75 per cent enclaved. With the ongoing tarring of the Kumba-Mamfe road, the people of Nguti are optimistic that it is going to boost development in their area and are already making plans to capitalize on their enormous tourist potential with the projected construction of a rest house for tourists. Nguti has touristic sites like the Banyang-Mbo sanctuary, the Birmi Crater Lake said to harbor species of fish not found anywhere else in the world. There is also the Bambe Escarpment which offers a view of century-old layers of rocks and the Mbie waterfall in Ntale, the...