On Monday, March 28, Mr. Younouss Soungui, Deputy General Manager of the Cameroon National Shippers' Council (CNSC), representing the General Manager Mr. Auguste Mbappe Penda who was unavoidably absent, received a delegation from the Mali Shippers' Council (CMC) led by Mr. Salihou Guiro, its 1st Vice President. In Cameroon for a two-day working visit, the delegation was accompanied by Mr. Giscard Lilian Ogoula, Secretary General of the Union of African Shippers' Councils (UASC).
 

Over the past few weeks, the CNSC has been receiving officials from some sister shippers’ councils all heading to Cameroon on a knowledge-sharing mission, to improve the competitiveness of their transport services and by extension, that of the entire continent. This is in line with cooperation initiatives recommended by the UASC with the hope to have a harmonized system for multimodal cargo transport in West and Central Africa, especially with the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The common factor in all these visits is the Electronic Cargo Tracking Note (ECTN), a document required by certain African countries to effectively control, supervise and manage import/export traffic. The Mali Shippers’ Council was in Cameroon to have first-hand experience on how the CNSC establishes and monitors ECTNs, the different scenarios for the implementation of ECTNs, and the relevance of the data collected before its delivery.

Mr. Salihou Guiro, speaking on behalf of the Malian delegation, was very grateful for the transparency and honesty with which CNSC officials shared erstwhile confidential information with them, added to the usual hospitality the CNSC can boast of. It was equally an opportunity for CNSC’s Director of Assistance to Shippers, Mrs. Claire Onana Takoutchop, to officially invite our guests to a seminar that will be organized by the CNSC themed “Optimising Opportunities Open to SMEs within the AfCFTA” from 12 - 14 April 2022 in Douala. The invitation was well received by the Malian delegation which promised to make another trip to Cameroon for the seminar.