The Seminar of appropriation of the infrastructure, technical and operational audit methodology for the establishment of an E-commerce Hub for Central Africa in Cameroon was officially launched by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications,

represented at the event by the Secretary General of Minpostel Mr. Mohamadou Saoudi on Monday 20^th November, 2023, in the conference hall of Minpostel.

The five day seminar presided at by the Secretary General of Minpostel, Mr. Mohamadou Saoudi, personal representative of the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mrs. Minette Libom Li Likeng is for Cameroon and experts from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), to acquire the necessary information and expectations for carrying out the infrastructure, technical and operational audit for the establishment of the E-commerce Hub for Central Africa Region in Cameroon.

During his opening speech Mr. Mahamadou Saoudi went down memory lane to relate the genesis of the program which mentioned that it was during the visit of the Director General of UPU to Cameroon on May, 2017, to publicly present the project Ecom@Africa that he declared the opening of an E-commerce Hub in Cameroon for Central Africa Zone due to Cameroon’s strategic location and its potential to have all the components necessary for the establishment of the Ecom@Africa platform.

According to Minpostel’s Secretary General, considering the initiative “Ecom@Africa” is part of Istanbul’s 2016-2020 global postal strategy to benefit Africa from the dividends from mail traffic generated in import and export by electronic commerce, the concept was closed in 2021. To this effect, the Cameroon delegation was advised to request for the support of experts from UPU to establish an “E-commerce Hub”, a program similar to that of Ecom@Africa.”

“The project also aims at uniting African Government around a joint initiative with view to implement an inclusive strategy allowing access to Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SMEs) and citizens to online commerce and better access to local, regional and international markets while facilitating import and export procedures of goods by relying on the Postal network”, added Mohamadou Saoudi who doubles as the President of the Scientific Committee of the Interministerial committee in charge of the establishment of an E-commerce Hub for Central Africa in Cameroon.

The seminar which brings together experts from UPU and Cameroon will debate on themes such as; the presentation of electronic commerce in Cameroon, legal framework and regulation of electronic commerce in Cameroon, presentation of transport infrastructures, logistics and access to ICTs, monitoring circuits, securing platforms and mail and parcels in Cameroon among others.

It should be noted that the said initiative is not a strange concept on the Cameroonian soil as individuals and some institutions through various social media platforms have been exercising in it but this time around it is expected to benefit not just individuals or a cluster of persons but the Central Africa sub-region at large.