(Business in Cameroon) - Central African transporters are asking the government in Bangui to work for the modification of the transport agreement linking this country to Cameroon, to offer more leeway to Cameroonian transporters on Central African soil.
Indeed, we learned at the end of a recent meeting between transport unions and the Central African Minister of Commerce, the law banning Cameroonian transporters from working inside the Central African Republic (and vice versa) is at the cause for the price hike on consumer goods in CAR. Thus, CAR transporters would wish for this measure taken by the people in charge of transport in both countries, to be cancelled.
According to the proponents of this idea, once in Bangui, several trucks belonging to Cameroonian transporters are blocked in the Central African capital, while they wait for local transporters, whose fleet is reduced, to take over the distribution of cargoes thus transported till Bangui towards the hinterland.
This extended need for Cameroonian drivers to remain in Bangui, we learn, reduces the availability of trucks on the Douala-Bangui corridor, which increases transport costs and consequently the prices of goods once in CAR.
According to Central African transporters, by authorising Cameroonian truckers to make deliveries upcountry in CAR, the Central African government would improve the rotation of trucks between the Douala-Bangui corridor and the hinterland, and thus contribute to the reduction of transport costs and goods prices.
BRM