(Business in Cameroon) - Since 2015, Cameroon in particular, and Central Africa in general, has its very first car assembly unit. This is the Société de transformation de bus (Sotrabus – Bus Transformation Company), specialised in the assembly of the transport bus with 45, 50 and 70 seats.

Located in the port area in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital, this company has 150 employees , who work at putting together two buses per month. According to Albert Mbafe Konkou, Cameroonian polytechnic engineer who owns Sotrabus, the buses produced in the port area of Douala are tropicalised, as they are adapted to African roads; a continent Sotrabus is planning to take over in the mid term, starting with Central Africa.

According to the top management of Sotrabus, the company has already assembled over 20 buses since its creation, motor vehicles which are today the price of some local inter-urban transport companies (Finex, Trésor Voyages, or Princesse Voyage, etc.), operating in the Yaoundé-Douala-Bafoussam circuit.

Based on the popularity of these first buses made in Cameroon with transporters, the management of Sotrabus are considering increasing the production output from 2 buses to roughly 15 buses per month, reveals Albert Mbafe Konkou, a mechanical engineer and former sponsor of a transport company who was the first to take the step towards vehicle assembly in Cameroon.

Brice R. Mbodiam