Under the partnership agreement signed on Friday in Douala involving shippers of three countries and the Bolloré group, parties undertake to work towards the professionalisation of and provision of assistance to shippers throughout the transport chain; put in place of an adequate framework to assist shippers throughout the supply chain. These are some of the objectives of the agreement signed on Friday, 13 April at the Douala Maritime Museum by the Cameroon National Shippers' Council (CNSC) and the Bolloré group.

It also seeks to create a platform between the two entities for consultation, cooperation, exchange of information and data and to improve transactions between them within the purview of the establishment of the Electronic Cargo Tracking Note (ECTN).

It is noteworthy that the agreement will help in following up the implementation of the recommendations of the Cameroon-Chad-CAR Tripartite Forum that held from 12 to 14 December 2017 in N'Djamena, on the theme "Facilitating the goods transit at the ports of Douala and Kribi

The ceremony was also attended by the General Manager of the Chad National Shippers' Council, Mr. Moustapha Nour and the Director General of Customs, Edwin Fongod Nuvaga.

"This means that the effect of this agreement goes beyond our borders and will address the problems faced by shippers in Chad, the Central African Republic and Congo," the CNSC General Manager said.

Mr. Auguste Mbappe Penda cited other achievements of CNSC's collaboration with Bolloré Transport & Logistics. These include the monitoring of long-staying containers at the Douala Port and the decongestion of the Container Terminal.

Since 2014, both parties have been working together to assist shippers in difficulties, with the aim of understanding the causes of their problems and solving them.

According to Mohamed Diop, Director of Bolloré Group in the Gulf of Guinea, the partnership agreement provides for the creation of a platform for an ongoing collaboration between the Bolloré group's subsidiaries operating in Cameroon, Chad and Central Africa with Cameroon Shippers’ Council. With the CNSC being the natural link for Chadian and Central African Shippers’ Councils, the agreement signed with CNSC still holds true for Chad and Central Africa.  

All said and done, the agreement is part of a process of reinforcing reference, exchange and consultation frameworks, "whose objective is to take part in the fascinating process of simplification, facilitation and dematerialisation that constitute a vector for cutting time and costs," Mohamed Diop said.