Cameroon-CAR Transit : Improvements expected on the corridor
At the behest of Mr. Theodore Jousso, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation of the Central African Republic (CAR), a bipartite meeting bringing together representatives of the Cameroon Port Community dubbed Port Synthèse, business persons and actors of the transport sector players held from 26 to 28 February 2018 in Bangui, the Central African Republic. The Cameroon delegation was led by Mr. Charles Michaux Moukoko Njoh, Deputy General Manager of the Port Authority of Douala (PAD) and representative of Port Synthèse.
As a reminder, more than 80% of the imports and exports of the Central African Republic passes through Cameroon. The purpose of the Bangui meeting was to discuss obstacles - harassment, delays in procedures, high costs of operations that hinder the free movement of people and goods on the Douala-Bangui corridor, and to seek solutions thereto. Consequently, the meeting brainstormed on efficient solutions for an easy and fast flow of goods along the corridor.
The meeting saw the official opening of the representation of the PAD and ports of Cameroon in the CAR on 27 February 2018, with the Kribi Port now functional. The PAD country office in Bangui, which is considered as a transit facilitation body on the Douala-Bangui corridor, will help to find appropriate solutions to the problems raised by the actor of both countries with a view to the supply and marketing of goods.
In December 2018, a similar ceremony held in N'Djamena, Chad with the official opening of PAD's country office there. The country offices thus established will have to play a central role in facilitating transit on the Douala-N'Djamena and Douala-Bangui corridors. The opening of these two country offices is in compliance with the instructions of the Government of Cameroon and the materialisation of a strong recommendation of the first Cameroon-Chad-CAR Tripartite Forum held in 2012 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
(Culled from Cameroon Tribune No. 11546 of 28 February 2018)