Lake Chad Basin Commission other countries with observer status are Egypt—in the neighboring Nile Basin—and the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo which are fed by the Ubangi River being considered for diversion into Lake Chad. The member countries fund the commission's $1 million annual budget based on an agreed-upon formula: Nigeria 52%, Cameroon 26%, Chad 11%, Niger 7%, the Central African Republic 4%. The Commission's Basin Committee for Strategic Planning (BCSP), coordinates local activities between the member states. The LCBC controls the hydro-active regions in the Chad Basin, called the "Conventional Basin". The initial Conventional Basin consisted of approximately 427,500
Rail transport in Chad government to build a line that would open the colony’s interior to trade. The syndicate sponsored expeditions in 1902–3 and 1904 to survey the projected route. Several plans or proposals to build railways during the French colonial period (French Equatorial Africa) in Chad, and to connect Chad to other African railway networks (Cameroon, Nigeria, Oubangui/Central African Republic). Early proposals include a line extending from the Cameroon rail system at Douala into Chad in the 1930s. One early unofficial plan was a study for a railway from Douala in Cameroon to Bangui, which was part of the pre-World War I German