CAMEROON’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE 2). By comparison, the cost and time of trading to and from the Central African Republic and Chad are substantially higher. For instance, it costs $8,150 to import a contained to Chad and $5,554 to the Central African Republic. The result is that basic goods are considerably less expensive in the Cameroon than in Chad and the Central Africa Republic.

The high costs and lengthy delays in trading to and from the landlocked countries are due to several barriers in the international corridors. Surface transport costs and travel times in the corridor connecting Cameroon to Chad and the Central African Republic (Douala-Ndjamena and Douala-Bangui) are among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Expensive surface transport costs along the corridors account for the bulk of the cost of importing to the Central African Republic. Inland transport cost in the Douala-Bangui, Douala-Ndjamena, Pointe Noire-Brazzaville-Bangui corridors account for up to 65 percent the total cost of importing (figure 6a).

**Table 2. Trading across borders in Central African countries**

|Country|Documents<br>required to<br>export<br>(number)|Time to export<br>(days)|Cost to export<br>($ per<br>container)|Documents<br>required to<br>import<br>(number)|Time to import<br>(days)|Cost to import<br>($ per container)|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Burundi|9|47|2,747|10|71|4,285|
|**Cameroon**|**11**|**23**|**1,379**|**12**|**26**|**1,978**|
|Central African Republic|9|54|5,491|17|62|5,554|
|Chad|6|75|5,902|10|101|8,150|
|Congo, Dem. Rep.|8|44|3,505|9|63|3,735|
|Congo, Rep.|11|50|3,818|10|62|7,709|
|Equatorial Guinea|7|29|1,411|7|48|1,411|
|Gabon|7|20|1,945|8|22|1,955|
|Rwanda|8|35|3,275|8|34|4,990|
|São Tomé and Principe|8|27|690|8|29|577|
|Central Africa|8|40|3,016|10|52|4,034|
|Sub-Saharan Africa|8|32|1,962|9|38|2,492|

_Source:_ World Bank 2011a. _Note:_ Documents required to export (import): The number of documents required per shipment to export (import) goods. Taken into account are documents required for clearance by government ministries, customs authorities, port and container terminal authorities, health and technical control agencies, and banks. Time to export (import): The time necessary to comply with all procedures required to export (import) goods. If a procedure can be accelerated for an additional cost, the fastest legal procedure is chosen. Cost to export (import): The cost associated with all procedures required to export (import) goods. Includes the costs for documents, administrative fees for customs clearance and technical control, customs broker fees, terminal-handling charges, and inland transport.

Surface transport costs are highly influenced by the strong presence of freight bureaus and transport associations that prevent truck operators from contracting directly with customers and result in high profit margins for the trucking industry. The regulatory framework—based on market sharing, centralized allocation of freight, and limits on vehicle mileage (around 2,000 kilometers per month versus 12,000 in the developed world)—weakens incentives to invest in service quality upgrades. As a result, the truck fleet is largely composed of poorly maintained second-hand trucks that are typically overloaded to obtain 10