The Groupement des transporteurs terrestres du Cameroun (GTTC), Cameroon's association of land transporters, is seeking to extend the scope of the Guichet d'Affrètement des Cargaisons (GAC), the Cargo Clearing House, to traffic between Cameroon and Nigeria. This proposition was the focus of a meeting on April 15, 2026, in Yola, Nigeria, between the GTTC and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO). The primary goal is to integrate digital tools to improve the management of cross-border transport.
The GAC is a digital platform designed to streamline the Lettre de voiture obligatoire (LVO), the mandatory waybill, improve the management of freight offers, increase the traceability of operations, and reduce administrative burdens. The ambition is to enhance transparency and competitiveness in road freight transport. Launched on April 2, 2026, in Douala by the Patronat des transporteurs professionnels (PTP), the professional transporters' association, the platform is currently used by carriers operating on the national network as well as on the Douala-N'Djamena and Douala-Bangui corridors. The system provides a centralized hub that aims to make access to freight offers more accessible.
The project now aims to include corridors common to both countries, including the Yola-Garoua and Mubi-Mayo-Woulo routes in the north, as well as the Ekok-Mfum cross-border corridor, structured around the bridge over the Cross River in the southwest. Industry stakeholders estimate that this international corridor generates approximately 13,000 trips and about 320,000 tons of goods per month, representing about 20% of exports. Its promoters see the extension of the GAC at the cross-border level as a way to facilitate trade, given that road transport accounts for about 75% of freight flows.
According to the Institut national de la statistique (INS), the national statistics institute, bilateral trade reached 41 billion FCFA in the third quarter of 2025, an increase of 10% year-on-year. However, the trade balance remains largely in favor of Nigeria, with 40.4 billion FCFA corresponding to Nigerian exports to Cameroon. A significant portion of trade between the two countries escapes official statistics due to informal trade and smuggling along the common border.
The extension of the GAC to the Cameroon-Nigeria corridors could lead to better management of road flows, given that most of the goods exported and imported between the two countries, including soaps, cigars, cocoa, cement, spare parts and hydrocarbons, transit by road. Following the meeting in Yola, the two organizations decided to implement an English version of the platform to facilitate its use by Nigerian stakeholders. A partnership agreement between NARTO and the Patronat des professionnels des transports is expected to be announced soon.
