(Business in Cameroon) - After five years of hibernation, the 2^nd tripartite forum Chad-CAR-Cameroon on port’s issues was ended on December 12, 2017, in Ndjamena, the Chadian capital.  

During this forum to which the three countries’ port community and economic operators took part, Douala autonomous port’s representative in Ndjamena has been officially installed. A representative of the Cameroonian company in charge of the management of Cameroon’s economic capital’s port, which is the largest in the country, in Bangui has also been appointed.

According to Douala port’s officials, the representatives’ appointment is part of a strategy to recapture the Chadian and Central African markets for which Douala port is the transit hub.

But, those countries’ importers and exporters turned to Sudan and Cotonou (Benin) ports for the transit of their goods for some years now, this, because of the difficulties they encountered at the Douala port and the hassles on the Douala-Ndjamena and Douala-Bangui corridors.

During the forum, it was revealed that this situation caused Douala’s port to lose 50% of the Chadian market and a little less for the Central African market.  So, the appointment of Douala port’s representatives in Ndjamena and Bangui, aims at enabling the port to reposition itself on these markets.

“The representations will have to regularly investigate the corridors’ functioning in order to immediately detect the barriers which persist and rapidly relay them to the appropriate authority” Cyrus Ngo’o, Douala’s port’s managing director explained.

According to figures from Cameroon’s customs dating back to 2013, about CFA340 billion worth of Chadian goods and CFA55 billion of Central African goods transit through the Douala port every year.

Brice R. Mbodiam