Cross-border trade: Cameroon commits to reducing barriers

March 24, 2022

In the framework of its new 3-year program (2021-2024) with the IMF, Cameroon commits to reducing barriers to cross-border trade.

In that regard, the IMF reveals in its recent country focus, Cameroonian authorities have vowed to limit “intermediate controls on the transport of goods in transit at conventional checkpoints” and simplify “administrative formalities and procedures for cross-border trade.” This will help reduce “port transit times for goods for import, export or transit,” and “port transit costs for imports and exports.”

At the same time, “the government will ensure the proper functioning of the National Trade Facilitation Committee (CONAFE), a participatory and partnership body bringing together equal numbers of public and private sector stakeholders responsible for trade facilitation.”

Currently, truckers transporting goods from Cameroon to neighbouring countries like Chad and the Central African Republic complain of the multitude of checkpoints and harassment.

Central African transporters report that they often leave XAF15,000 to 25,000 at checkpoints when transporting goods from Cameroon to Bangui (capital of the Central African Republic). On February 22, 2022, Central African truckers even went on strike to denounce those harassments. That strike led to the temporary closure of the border between the two countries.

According to transporters' unions, some 78,000 trucks are operational on the Douala-N'djamena-Bangui corridors. Those trucks transport about XAF340 billion worth of goods to Chad every year against XAF55 billion to the Central African Republic.

Source: Business in Cameroon