Illicit payments demanded from truck drivers along key trade corridors in Central Africa have dropped by about half since 2021, according to a study funded by the European Union and presented this week in the Cameroonian capital.
The findings were unveiled during a regional workshop in Yaounde organised by the Observatory of Abnormal Practices in Central Africa (OPA-AC), which monitors informal charges and administrative barriers affecting transport and trade across the sub-region.
The study showed that illegal payments collected along major routes linking Cameroon with neighbouring countries have declined significantly over the past four years, while the number of checkpoints has also been reduced.
Along the 1,840-kilometre corridor connecting Yaoundé in Cameroon and N’Djamena in Chad, the number of checkpoints has fallen from 104 in 2021 to 79 in 2025, according to the report.
Of the remaining checkpoints on the route, only 46 are currently considered active control points, including 40 on the Cameroonian side of the border and six in Chad.
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The research is based on 16 quarterly surveys conducted across major regional trade routes within the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC).
These include the Douala–N’Djamena, Douala–Bangui and Yaounde–Libreville corridors, as well as operational assessments inside the ports of Douala and Kribi.
The monitoring initiative is implemented by the Sub-Regional Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (ISSEA) with funding from the European Union through its Global Gateway infrastructure programme.
The project aims to identify and progressively eliminate abnormal practices that slow trade and raise transport costs across Central Africa.
According to the study, traders travelling along the Yaounde–Libreville corridor paid about 250,000 CFA francs ($410) in illicit charges per 100 kilometres in 2021.
By 2025, that figure had dropped to roughly 125,000 CFA francs, representing a 50 percent reduction.
Researchers say the improvement reflects ongoing efforts by governments and regional institutions to simplify procedures, strengthen monitoring and reduce unofficial payments that inflate the cost of goods moving across borders.
Progress has also been recorded at ports, particularly at the Port of Douala, where vessel waiting times have dropped from around 14 to 15 days to roughly eight days.
Authorities attribute much of the improvement to the digitalisation of port procedures, which has streamlined documentation and reduced the number of physical control points.
Despite the progress, project officials say challenges remain in fully eliminating informal payments and administrative barriers along regional trade routes.
“We are moving towards intelligent port enclosures and corridors, even if it is not yet at the pace we had hoped,” said Robert Ngonthe, deputy project leader of the OPA-AC initiative.
Cameroon’s Minister Delegate in charge of Planning, Paul Tasong, welcomed the findings, describing the monitoring system as a valuable tool for improving policy decisions and strengthening regional trade.
“All actors on the corridors agree that competitiveness is undermined by abnormal practices,” Tasong said during the workshop.
“To change the situation, there is nothing better than improving our understanding of these practices.”
Representatives of the European Union said the initiative reflects broader efforts to improve the efficiency of trade corridors in Africa.
Philippe Lafosse, chargé d’affaires at the EU delegation to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, said improving the movement of goods and people was essential to maximising the benefits of infrastructure investment.
“It is not enough to build infrastructure,” he said. “People must also be able to move freely along these routes in a predictable manner and without the harassment that consumers often end up paying for.”
Project leaders also reported improvements within the Port of Kribi and the Douala port enclosure, though detailed figures were not presented during the workshop.
According to Marcel Opoumba, director general of ISSEA and leader of the OPA-AC project, conditions in port operations have improved significantly in recent years.
The study comes as governments within CEMAC intensify efforts to boost intra-regional trade, which remains limited compared with other regional blocs due to infrastructure gaps, bureaucratic delays and informal levies.
Reducing unofficial charges and streamlining border procedures could lower transport costs and improve the competitiveness of goods traded across Central Africa, analysts say.
