During the 3^rd Tripartite Forum held in Bangui, the Cameroon National Shippers’ Council (CNSC) assessed progress made on the implementation of recommendations tabled at the 2^nd Tripartite Forum in Ndjamena.

Under the supervision of CNSC's Deputy General Manager Mr. Younouss Soungui, the company’s Centre Regional Branch Manager, Mr. Fernand Douglas Nolga gave a rather edifying presentation during the “INFRASTRUCTURES AND SUPERSTRUCTURES” workshop.

This CNSC presentation mainly focused on the need to have more accommodation centres along transport corridors and the organisation of information and training activities for shippers of landlocked countries in collaboration with their Shippers' Councils.

The event was an opportunity for participants to learn of CNSC's Dibamba trucker accommodation centre located on the eastern exit of Douala, operational for over two years now. Some light was equally thrown on the Ngoulentang trucker accommodation centre which is not far from the Akonolinga weighing station. The facility should open its doors by the end of the year. Works at the Kousseri trucker accommodation centre, a few metres from the Ngueli Bridge on Cameroon's border with Chad, are currently being finalised and the facility should be completed early 2022. Added to these, CNSC has already acquired a 10-hectare plot of land for the construction of an accommodation centre in Garoua-Boulaï, Cameroon’s border town with the Central African Republic.

The erection of these trade promoting infrastructures aims to provide better resting facilities for transporters transiting through Cameroon while contributing to the smooth flow and the security of transport chain operations on the corridors. The parking lots of these accommodation centres, together with other facilities provided to transporters, allow for a substantial reduction in poor parking along public roads which sometimes cause fatal accidents.

As concerns CNSC's actions geared towards informing and training shippers and transporters, participants noted that the CNSC had doubled its efforts in that regard since the last forum, the outcome of which has enabled the ports and corridors to maintain remarkable traffic flow evidenced by the performance of port sector stakeholders, the efficiency of operations and the reduction of freight transit costs.

These actions by the CNSC, in collaboration with its partners of the multimodal transport chain, effectively help to boost the competitiveness of Cameroon's ports and corridors.