CAMEROON Peer Review Country Report

Workshop on the impact of single windows on the passage of

goods across ports and on the trade facilitation in general

Douala, Cameroun, 08-11 September 2014.

Peer Review Week

Date: 11th to 14th August 2014: Douala, Cameroon

Team: Ms. Birgit Viohl, project consultant,

Mr. Tanjona Rabemiandrisoa

(Madagascar Single Window), and

Mr. Abdoullahi Faouzi

(Cameroon Single Window, e-GUCE)

Mission: 17 interactive sessions

Scope: e-GUCE excluding Customs clearance procedures

(as carried out by ASYCUDA++)

2

Content1. Context Establishment, Positioning and Challenges,

e.g. national institutional and legal framework, and

business model

2. Coverage, e.g. international trade processes, and

functions/services provided by SW

3. System Architecture

4. Performance (Usage Statistics and Impacts)

5. SWOT Feedback & Recommandations

1. Context

1.1. Type of SW

– Single Window for Clearance Formalities,

excluding Customs clearance

– Supports typical Trader–Government interaction for

government approvals and authorizations

prior to an importation or exportation

– Most services are only applicable in Douala port

since it is the major port of the country.

– Not fully or end-to-other-end paperless environment yet

– In operation since 2007 and for procedures of

importation of used cars,

since then more coverages are expended.

Importers

Exporters

Customs Clearing Agents

PAD

Banks

Min of Commerce

eGUCE

Customs ASYCUDA++

End-User Public User

Single Window Model

SGS

National Shipping

Council

Shipping Lines

Treasury

Insurance

Companies

1. Context

1.2. National policy direction & mandate

GUCE was established in 2000 as

an Economic Interest Group

Government trade facilitation objectives

– Reduction of processing time for customs clearance

– Reduction of cash circulation

– Limitation of data duplication

– Fostering stakeholder collaboration through exchange of

information and physical concentration.

1. Context

1.3. Legal framework

Obligatory use of the SW for

e-Manifest,

e-Payment for Customs Duties and Tax,

e-DI, e-CIVIO, and

e-Insurance procedures

Legal changes (Decree 22nd Feb 2014) to allow

e-procedures and paperless processing

through e-GUCE Single Window for foreign trade

1. Context

1.4. Business Model

PPP – Economic interest group

Non-profit making model

Members are from private and public sector

Funding

Deployment: Funding from donors (Initial and paperless project)

Operations: Government (2007-2009) and

flat user fee (fixed amount)

Governance

Corporate governance: all members of EIG

Project governance structure: all relevant stakeholders at highest

political level

1. Partners

OGAs: Total: 6, in SW 1, = 15%

Customs

Commercial Banks: 100%

Insurance Companies: 100%

Destination Inspection Company: Total 1 = 100%

Port Authority: Port Autonome de Douala

Customs Brokers/Customs Clearing Agents: 70%

Shipping Lines: 100%

2. Coverage

2.1 Trade Procedures / Regulatory services

REMOVALDECLARE-RELEASEAPPROVALS

PRE-ARRIVAL INFO RECEPTION of GOODS

Supply Chain Processes/Trade Procedurescovered by Cameroon SW

DECLARE-RELEASE

• Customs Declaration data sharing

(from Asycuda++ to e-GUCE) with

PAD, Banks and Treasury

• Collection of Customs Duties and

Taxes by Banks and Treasury

(Semi-electronic payment)

• Traders Requesting for the bill of

PAD’s Port Charge (pilot)

APPROVALS

• Request for CoO (in pilot)

• BESC (data integration)

• Importer registration and DI

(Min of Commerce)

• National Harmonized Insurance

Certificate

(Insurance Companies)

PRE-ARRIVAL INFO

• Submission of Cargo Manifest

(by shipping line to Customs

through eGUCE, and then

sharing with PAD and DIT)

• Publication of Vessel arrival

notice (by PAD to e-GUCE)

RECEPTION of GOODS

• Container movement

(available through eGUCE

from DIT – Container

Terminal Operators)

• CIVIO (Inspection on arrival) DIT (Container Terminal Operator)

PAD (Port Authority of Douala)

Min Com (Ministry of Commerce)

2. Coverage

Regulatory services

Currently 5 procedures:

Request of a Certificate of Inspection for used cars at importation

Request of Import Declaration for used cars at importation

Submission of Manifest to Customs

Registration of importers and exporters (Min of Commerce)

Requesting National Harmonized Insurance Certificate

In Pilot

Certificate of Origin (by Chamber of Commerce)

Developed but not used

Manifest update

2. Coverage

Transport services

Prévision des escales (Shipping arrival notification)

Tracking des containeurs (Container tracking)

In Pilot

Port Authority Invoicing

Developed but not yet used

Certificate d’empotage

(Potting Certificate issued by Customs & OGA)

Electronic Summary Declaration (EU) formalities

(sending by shipping lines)

2. Coverage

2.2. SW processes

Electronic government approval and document

collection process;

Notification of payment of customs duties and taxes;

Exchange of document and data between and with

public users.

2. Coverage

2.3. SW services

Data entry, data formatting, and control and submission of data

and information;

Uploading of data from external media: cargo manifest (xml

format), commercial invoice (an excel sheet functionality);

Self-printing of documents;

Tracking and tracing of processing;

“Goods Tracking information” service;

Tax and Duty Calculation Simulator;

Data export to external media;

Network services.

2. Coverage

2.4. Paperless and Paper-based environment

Application forms can be submitted electronically with electronic

documents attachment (paperless), and issuing is done electronically also,

but the final document is printed to be presented to

next manual stages,

e.g. - Customs still requests paper CIVIO (printing out from SGS)

- Insurance policies issued electronically, but most regulatory

agencies still ask for print-out paper insurances

- After paying duty at the bank (payment status electronically

sent to Treasury & Customs,

but Customs/Stevedore/DIT/…still request print-out receipt.

e-Signature is in the pilot stage (now only work with Internet Explorer).

3. System Architecture

3.1. Single Window system

Seamless processing: The Single window operations rely on one system

eGUCE

Web applications

EDI Integration with partners

Orchestration Engine

Datacenter (but no second DRC yet)

Legacy platform for Insurance certificate (will be phased out soon).

DRC – Disaster recovery Center

3. System Architecture

3.2. Integration of Partners

Interface with partners’ system

eGUCE exchanges data (records, attached documents, or approval

status) with the following entities:

Customs (e-Manifest, e-Declaration, Vessel Pre-arrival Notification)

PAD (e-Manifest, e-Declaration, Vessl Pre-arrival Notification, )

SGS (e-CIVIO)

National Shipper Council (BESC – cargo tracking slip)

DIT (Container Movement information)

3. System Architecture

Integration of clients

Processing in eGUCE

Support for data entry

Manifest data can be uploaded from external sources in different

formats

Documents can be attached in scanned format,

e.g. origin invoice, B/L, etc

4. Performance

Impacts of ASYCUDA++ and e-GUCE

For the clearance of import of used cars: Overall time has

been reduced from 7 days to less than 48 hours

(if all conditions are ok). (at TMFD park)

Time for process steps (for general cases)

– Submission of Declaration till the clearance:

reducing from 6 days and more, now less than 3 hours;

– Issuance of Customs duties and taxes Payment Receipt:

reducing from 3 days (before e-GUCE) to 2 hours and less;

– Issuance of Import Declaration (by Ministry of Commerce)

reducing from 8 hours to 15 min;

– Capturing of Import manifest (300 pages)

reducing from 7 days to less than a 1 min.

4. Performance

Impact of eGUCE on processing

number of days (average of the month of July)

4. Performance

Other qualitative impacts

– Securing documents, e.g.

reducing the no. of faked papers

– Less paper and incidents of personal intervention

– Better statistics and traceability of processing

– Improved revenue transparency

5. Strengths and Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

WeaknessesStrengths

- New leadership: Project committee units

all actors at the highest political level

(chaired by Secretary General

of Prime Minister Ofiice)

- Accelerating the remaining procedures

- Adapting new end-to-the-other-end

paperless transaction

- Paper culture (people resisting change)

- Technological limits for further integration to

other systems e.g. ASYCUDA++

- Marketing influence of other SW solution

providers

- Currently limited number of procedures

covered or/used (36 procedures identified but

11 fully used (3 still piloting))

- Difficult linkage with Customs Processes

and systems due to technical challenges

- Lack of change leadership

for paper culture

- Single integrated platform, e.g. web-based or EDI

- Competent team in technology

- Clear vision for paperless project

(preliminary studies and training for GUCE staff

guide the project have beed conducted.)

-Continuous time and performance

monitoring and management

-Supportive partners for process

improvements and paperless

re-engineering (SGS and PAD)

Thank You

Workshop on the impact of single windows on the passage of

goods across ports and on the trade facilitation in general

Douala, Cameroun, 08-11 September 2014.