(Business in Cameroon) - Starting from February 1, 2021, "modifications to Electronic Cargo Tracking Notes (ECTNs)  are prohibited," according to a briefing note recently signed by Auguste Mbappe Penda (photo), Director General of the Cameroon National Shippers' Council (CNSC).

The CNSC explains that this measure aims to reduce the frauds and congestions that sometimes occur during the goods clearance process in the country. Indeed, ECTNs are documents that allow shippers to carry out clearance procedures. However, at the very last minute, some economic operators modify the documents without giving the CNSC time to check the credibility of the new data introduced.  

Auguste Mbappe Penda indicates that exceptional modification requests will be carefully studied and may lead to "the payment of additional service fees when it is established that the modification induced is the supplier’s fault." He adds that to comply with the government’s instructions regarding the digitization of foreign trade transaction procedures, such requests will be submitted electronically.

The ECTN was instituted by decree n°00557/MINT of July 11, 2006. According to this decree, the CNSC or its representatives can choose not to validate any shipping note for which the information (in particular those relating to the calculation of transport costs) seems unreliable. Nonetheless, refusal to validate the shipping note does not mean that they will prevent the goods from being loaded. It just means that the importer or exporter will present a new shipping note.

Another reason the CNSC is prohibiting the modification of ECTNs is that they provide information and data that help identify, control the transport costs, as well as ensure the security and traceability of trade and traffic coming from or to Cameroon.

The fraudulent alteration of that document could therefore have security, health, and even financial consequences for the country. For exports, the obtention of that document costs XAF5,000 per shipment of cocoa leaving Cameroon for African countries against XAF10,000 for shipments leaving the country to the rest of the world. For banana, wood, rubber, cotton, fruits, and vegetables leaving the country for African countries, that document costs XAF10,000 FCFA while for the obtention of that document for those products to the rest of the world costs XAF15,000.  

For import from Africa and the rest of the world, the document costs  €100 per 600 tons for the following products: limestone, clinker, gypsum. For salt, it is €100 per 700 tons and for cement, alumina, coke, pitch, and malt, it is €100 per 300 tons.

Sylvain Andzongo