THE NEED FOR AN ADDRESS SYSTEM IN CAMEROON

With the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have been forced to restrict travel and confine individuals to stop the spread of this dangerous virus. These limitations have prevented individuals from visiting markets to purchase goods and products. For Cameroonians, this has proved challenging and retail sales are decreasing. In other parts of the world, such as the United States and Europe, there are shipping alternatives to receive items while locked inside (e-commerce). The process is quite simple, only requiring payment information and an address, and goods typically arrive in two hours to two days. The prohibiting factor in Cameroon is the lack of an address system, which is a necessity to ship goods, products, and food.

The principal service for shipping in Cameroon is CAMPOST, although it is typically only small packages and envelopes, and it is extremely inefficient. Directions are based on landmarks and they prove to be complicated during the delivery process. A deliveryman typically drives to the stipulated postal code, calls the recipient, and then has to find the identified location. In a country of more than 25 million, there are only about 80,000 postal codes so identifying locations can be time-consuming. To make matters worse, almost everyone is using a mobile telephone, but the country is facing network problems, and there are only a handful of named roads in big cities such as Yaounde and Douala. 

If Cameroon can’t make it convenient to ship within the county, it is missing out on business innovation and a more prosperous economy. As detailed in a 2019 market study of restaurant delivery services, the global market for online-ordered prepared food delivery was estimated at $94 billion and expected to grow at over 9% a year, reaching $134.5 billion in 2023. Global e-commerce sales amounted to more than $3.5 trillion in 2019 and this number is expected to continue increasing at almost 20% per year over the next few years. 

Cameroon is the 10th market for e-commerce in Africa but the country has to improve in this domain. Some giants in the sector in Africa such as Jumia have closed their doors in Cameroon due in part to the lack of shipping capacity and administrative issues. The company had to lay off almost 200 employees. Jumia has had more success in countries such as Ghana that are rolling out their own address system. Instead of using a structure or reference point to locate a home or business in Ghana, the country's government launched a digital system where every property across the nation has a unique code as its address. The app, GhanaPostGPS, was created and delivered by Accra-based Vokacom.

The Cameroonian government has much to gain by putting in place an efficient and well-organized address system. It will not only improve the economy by attracting investors that see huge opportunities in the e-commerce sector, but it will also improve property rights, property identification, and the orientation of tourists and visitors (tourism revenue).

[1]  Statista.com. statista. Retrieved 18 June 2019