(Business in Cameroon) - The trade union of road haulers estimates at FCfa 175 billion the annual sales revenues made by road haulage operators in Cameroon. However, this organisation maintains, that 45% of this turnover, FCfa 75.6 billion, eludes the operators of this activity regulated by the law of 21 July 2001.

Indeed, condemns the management of the trade union of road haulers, who gave a press conference on 24 July 2017 in Yaoundé, this activity has been infiltrated by "clandestine" operators, who have instituted a practice called "own account transport"; which has created a sort of unfair "competition" towards genuine transport owners, we learn.

It concerns large industrial entities, big businessmen or even marketeers, who distribute their products themselves throughout the entire country, thanks to their own fleet of trucks, but who are not recognised by the law of 21 July 2001 governing the road haulage profession and ancillary services.

"In this country, even the motorcycle-taxi man pays a flat rate tax. The investment to purchase a motorcycle for transport is around FCfa 450,000. How can an operator who uses a semi trailer truck, which requires an investment of between FCfa 120 to 140 million, transport merchandise without being subjected to the least payment of tax?", questions El Hadj Oumarou, coordinator of the Management of Land Freight Bureau (Bureau de Gestion du Fret Terrestre - BGFT).

Behind this condemnation of the transport operators, one would detect the vestige of the conflict which has opposed since 2015, the Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and the Cameroonian transport operators. Indeed, at the same time he launched his cement plant in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital, Mr. Dangote had 200 trucks unloaded at the port of Douala which to this day ensure the distribution of the Dangote brand cement on the national territory. "Dangote is the straw that breaks the camel's back. There are hundreds of them doing own account transport, which in truth is clandestine transport in the literal sense", claims El Hadj Oumarou.

Questioned on this tendency to transport their own products themselves, certain industrialists raise the argument of looking for efficiency, which sits uncomfortably with the ageing state of the vehicle fleet of the haulers. Indeed, during the conference of last 24 July in Yaoundé, the trade union of road haulers, itself, has revealed that 70% of the vehicle fleet of Cameroonian transport operators is at least 25 years old.

Brice R. Mbodiam