On 21 June 2024, the General Manager of the Cameroon National Shippers' Council (CNSC), Mr. Auguste Mbappe Penda, received an important delegation of 23 experts from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as some African universities.

The delegation, led by Mr. Stephen Karingi, Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, were in Cameroon to assess progress in the implementation of the BIAT programme and the upcoming publication of the ARIA IX report on regional integration in Africa. They seized this opportunity to learn from the CNSC's experience in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Cameroon.

CNSC's General Manager who doubles as Chairman of the Ad hoc Sub-committee charged with facilitating the implementation of AfCFTA's Guided Trade Initiative in Cameroon, gave them an overview of all the measures taken and the difficulties encountered at the national level. The first import under AfCFTA was received at the port of Kribi on 17 July 2023, and export shipments are currently underway, despite current issues relating to the training of personnel of the logistics chain.

The delegation of international experts encouraged the CNSC to regularly organise training workshops for shippers, and above all to persuade businesses of the private-sector to focus on wood and cotton processing, which has a potential market of one billion three hundred million people on the African continent.

The discussions, which took place in a very cordial atmosphere, revealed a shared desire to strengthen collaboration between the various institutions present.