The General Manager of the Cameroon National Shippers' Council (CNSC) and Chairman of the Ad hoc sub-committee charged with monitoring the implementation of the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) guided trade initiative, Mr. Auguste Mbappe Penda, was warmly congratulated by Trade Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, who presided over the inaugural ceremony of Cameroon's first containerised export under the AfCFTA regime on behalf of the Prime Minister - Head of Government.

The ceremony which took place at the Douala - Bonaberi Port today, 5 July 2024, was attended by the Director General of the Port Authority of Douala, Mr. Cyrus Ngo'o, the Douala City Mayor, Mr. Roger Mbassa Ndine, and a host of senior officials amongst whom executives from ALUCAM.

The shipment, consisting of 4 containers of aluminium ingots, was produced by Cameroon's Aluminium Company ALUCAM for the Algerian company ALFILECT. This operation is one of the fall outs of negotiations that began in Egypt in November 2023, when ALUCAM took part in the Intra-African Trade Fair in Cairo at the invitation of the CNSC. This was reiterated in Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana’s inaugural speech, wherein he underscored the strategic role played by CNSC's General Manager, a key orchestrator of today's ceremony..

This inauguration of the first containerised export shipment under AfCFTA comes exactly one year after Cameroon's first import under this preferential regime. Note that the CNSC also played a very strategic role in the negotiations that culminated with the arrival of the first AfCFTA containerised import of Tunisian resins at the port of Kribi