CEMAC Corridors at a Crossroads
In a region where geography often conspires against economic convergence, the six-member Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) has long regarded its road arteries as instruments of diplomacy no less than commerce. The 16th Central African Trans-Border Fair, or FOTRAC, held from 17 to 30 July across the contiguous towns of Kyé-Ossi in Cameroon, Bitam in Gabon and Ebibeyin in Equatorial Guinea, sought to turn these corridors into what organisers called “secure bridges” toward the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Attendance figures released by the fair’s secretariat indicate more than 1 900 exhibitors and visitors from a dozen countries, including a sizable delegation from the Republic of the Congo. Such numbers, though modest by global standards, are politically resonant in a bloc where intra-regional trade remains below 5 % of total commerce (UNCTAD 2023).
Kyé-Ossi, Bitam, Ebibeyin: A Tri-Border Laboratory
The choice of venue is hardly accidental. Kyé-Ossi, Bitam and Ebibeyin form an economic micro-cosm whose daily flow of tomatoes, timber and telecommunications devices mirrors the strategic dilemmas of Central Africa. Officially, the three posts allow visa-free movement for CEMAC citizens under protocols adopted in 2013, yet traders still recount arbitrary fees and multi-layered inspections that can turn a 500-metre crossing into a two-hour ordeal. During a panel moderated by the Cameroonian Ministry of Trade, participants catalogued more than forty distinct checkpoints between Douala and Libreville. According to the African Development Bank, logistics costs along this axis average 30 % of the final retail price, triple the continental mean (AfDB 2022).
Women Traders and the Informal Dividend
If numbers alone fail to capture FOTRAC’s significance, the testimonies of women entrepreneurs provide a sharper lens. Jeanne Danielle Nlate, president of the Central Africa Active Women’s Network and chief promoter of the fair, noted that female-run micro-enterprises account for nearly two-thirds of cross-border commerce in fresh produce. “Even when all documents are in order, mobility is not guaranteed,” she told delegates, a remark met with knowing laughter and some discomfort. The fair’s training sessions on digital customs declarations—supported by the Economic Commission for Africa—illustrated how informal resilience could be channelled into formal growth, provided procedures become predictable and corruption risks diminish.
Infrastructure and Governance Hurdles
Delegates converged on two diagnoses: dilapidated roads and fragmented regulation. Truckers interviewed in Kyé-Ossi pointed to the pothole-riddled N2 highway as a symbol of ‘integration fatigue’. Meanwhile, discrepancies between Cameroon’s Asycuda World platform and Gabon’s Sydonia system oblige freight forwarders to duplicate manifests. The CEMAC Commission used the fair to unveil a pilot one-stop border post scheduled for 2025, financed by the World Bank’s Transport Sector Development Project (World Bank 2022). While donors praise the concept, private-sector actors insist that hardware must be matched by governance; otherwise, scanners risk sitting idle, as has happened at the Sangmelima–Ouesso corridor.
Congo-Brazzaville’s Calculated Engagement
The Republic of the Congo, whose Atlantic ports offer landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic an alternative to congested routes through Cameroon, approached the fair with discernible strategic intent. The Congolese delegation, led by Minister of Trade Claude Alfred Iloki, highlighted Brazzaville’s recent adoption of the Single Window for Foreign Trade and its decision to waive certain export licences for small consignments—measures applauded by the International Monetary Fund for improving the nation’s Doing Business indicators (IMF 2023). Congolese exhibitors, ranging from cocoa cooperatives in Sangha to Brazzaville-based fintech start-ups, reported brisk sales. Their presence underscored President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s oft-stated view that “regional markets are the first circle of sovereignty,” a formulation that resonates with diplomats who see proactive regionalism as a buffer against external shocks.
Beyond Symbolism: Pathways to AfCFTA Delivery
Observers agree that fairs, however vibrant, are only snapshots. The AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra has urged CEMAC members to operationalise the Guided Trade Initiative, which simplifies rules of origin for eight priority sectors. For Central Africa, this would entail harmonising tariff nomenclatures, mutualising border health controls and accelerating the digitalisation of transit bonds. The stakes are high: the World Bank estimates that full AfCFTA implementation could lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty by 2035, with mineral-rich Congo-Brazzaville positioned to leverage both raw-material supply chains and emerging service niches. Yet, as a senior official from the Bank of Central African States cautioned in Bitam, “goodwill must travel faster than trucks.”
The legacy of the 2023 edition of FOTRAC will depend on whether the commitments voiced along the Kyé-Ossi–Ebibeyin triangle translate into fewer roadblocks and greater policy coherence. The early signs are cautiously encouraging: Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have agreed to publish joint customs data monthly, while Cameroon has pledged to upgrade the N2 corridor using a mix of public and Chinese concessional financing. Such incremental moves, though far from headline-grabbing, suggest that integration in Central Africa is less a leap than a disciplined march—an approach that accords with Brazzaville’s penchant for steady, consensus-oriented diplomacy. By turning borderlands from margins into meeting grounds, the cross-border fair may yet prove that prosperity in the Congo Basin is as much about political will as it is about asphalt and paperwork.
