The Cameroonian government is shifting gears in its approach to modernizing road weigh stations. After a partially unsuccessful initial procedure launched in 2025, authorities are revising their strategy. On April 13, 2026, the Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, met with technical officials in Yaoundé to announce a new acquisition strategy for the Mandjou (East), Manwi (Adamaoua), Bekoko, and Njombe (Littoral) stations.
A national call for tenders, launched in August 2025 with a budget of 520 million FCFA, resulted in the awarding of the Bekoko and Njombe lots to a single company, while the Mandjou and Manwi lots were declared unsuccessful. This situation raised concerns about potential market concentration and the perceived insufficient quality of some offers.
The new strategy advocates for a more precise division of the market, clearly distinguishing between station development work and the supply of technical equipment. The goal is to encourage broader participation from local businesses, improve the quality of proposals, and accelerate project implementation. This approach also aims to reduce the execution risks often encountered in such projects.
This initiative is part of a larger project to digitalize the country's 17 road weigh stations, which has been announced for about fifteen years. The current system, designed to protect road infrastructure from overloading, faces challenges such as power outages, recurring breakdowns, insufficient equipment, and disputes from transporters. Digitalization aims to streamline operations, enhance transparency, and improve the collection of public revenue, estimated at 2 billion FCFA in 2020, but considered below its real potential due to corruption and informal arrangements.
By reducing human intervention, the digitalization of weigh stations should help combat corruption and optimize state revenue, while ensuring better protection of Cameroon's road network.
