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Introducing the Single Transit Permit (STP)

In a bid to further facilitate and ensure the security of road and railway transit operations for goods imported or manufactured in Cameroon and destined for the Central African Republic and Chad, the Customs Administration, pursuant to Ministerial Instruction No. 00063/MINFI/DGD of 20 February 2017 on the introduction of the Single Transit Permit, has proceeded with its implementation.

The Single Transit Permit, a document to be issued by the customs administration, aims to reduce the time spent and the hassles suffered by truckers and other road and rail transporters along the Douala-Bangui and Douala-Ndjamena routes.

Moreover, the permit offers a number of advantages to operators namely the dematerialisation of procedures, the increase in the performance of transport operations for goods in transit by providing shippers with a new "rail-road” service mode, the reduction of transit times on corridors, the facilitation of procedures at break-bulk points (Belabo, Ngaoundere, Edea etc... ), the security of goods in transit for a better traceability of cargo breaking operations, the control of road transport means such as trucks, road tractors and trailers, which carry these goods to railway loading points, the reduction of transit fraud and lastly, the setting up of collection centres for goods in transit.

To guarantee its quick implementation, a task force comprising both Customs and Camrail agents was created on 16 September 2021 at the General Directorate of Customs. The said task force shall check compliance with procedures and data exchange requirements for optimal cargo tracking, detect possible malfunctions and propose corrective measures that shall guarantee the payment of amounts due into public coffers, and facilitate transit operations through the sharing of data between Camrail and Customs Administrations.

(Source: Excerpt from Cameroon Tribune No.12439/8638 of 28 September 2021)