Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Transatlantic D. Announced On January 1, 2026, That It Would Start Merchandise Inspection (Scanning) At Douala Port On January 2. PAD And The Customs Administration Disagreed. That Sparked A Crisis (Blockage) At The Container Inspection Sector At The Port, Causing An Estimated Loss In Revenue Of 1.5 Billion FCFA Daily. An Emergency Meeting Was Convened At The Presidency. But – –
Some observers had thought that the correspondence that was addressed to the General Manager of Port Authority of Douala (PAD), Cyrus Ngo’o, on December 29, 2025 by the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, would stop Transatlantic D. Company from starting the operation of merchandise or container inspection (scanning) at the Douala Port on January 1, 2026, as the General Manager of PAD stated in his press release back on December 26, 2025. But those observers were wrong. The Cyrus Ngo’o / Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh Camp were determined to push ahead with Transatlantic D. And so the General Manager of PAD ignored the correspondence of the Minister of Finance, in which he recalled that the Government signed a contract with ‘Societe Generale du Surveillance’, SGS, on March 2, 2015 for container inspection by scanner, and that the contract had not yet ended.
Transatlantic D Announces Its Start Of Operation
Rather, on January 1, 2026, the Transatlantic D. Company, issued a communiqué in which it announced that it would effectively start the operation of cargo inspection at the Douala Port as from January 2, 2026. Transatlantic D. said this was in conformity with a concession agreement that it signed with the Douala Port Authority, as well as in conformity also with communiqué No. 0583/ 251/ DG/ PAD, that the General Manager of PAD signed on merchandise inspection at the Douala Port. The company said as from January 2, it was to ensure the complete operation of scanning of containers at the Douala Port, in strict respect of the operational procedures, security and regulations in force. Transatlantic D. warned that the presentation of “Inspection OK”, a document that shows the validation of the scanning of a container by the company, would be a major condition to allow any container to leave the Douala Port.
It is also interesting to note that Transatlantic D. in talking about the concession agreement that the company signed with the Port Authority of Douala, said the concession that was given to the company by PAD, was regularly or legally done. This contradicted the official position of Government, which is that PAD had no competence to sign a concession agreement with another company, to take over container inspection operation by scanning, at the Douala Port, because the contract which the Government signed with SGS Cameroun for the purpose is still in force.
Standoff Between PAD And Customs Service At Douala Port
But things did not go the way the Camp of Cyrus Ngo’o and Ngoh Ngoh had hoped. The Customs Service at the Douala Port, refused to follow the instruction of the General Manager of PAD, that Transatlantic D. was henceforth to exclusively carryout “non -intrusive cargo inspection (scanning) operations at the Port of Douala – Bonaberi”, thus replacing SGS Scanning Cameroun. The Management of PAD went to the extent of ordering the dismantling of some installations of SGS Scanning Cameroun at the Douala Port, to block the company from continuing with its activity of merchandise inspection (scanning). PAD was directing importers and exporters with containers, to instead go to Transatlantic D for inspection. The Genera l Manager of PAD warned that any importer or exporter that took his or her container to SGS for scanning, instead of to Transatlantic, will pay double. That is, the importer or exporter will pay to Transatlantic also, before their containers would be allowed to leave the Douala Port in case of import, or be loaded into a ship in case of export.
But the Camp of the General Manager of PAD, Cyrus Ngo’o, faced a stiff opposition from another major State player or actor at the Douala Port, in their controversial plan to impose Transatlantic D in replacement of SGS Scanning Cameroun. The Customs Service told PAD straight in the face, “NO Way”. Without any surprise, the Customs Service insisted on the respect of the directive of the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, which holds that the contract that the Cameroon Government signed with SGS Scanning Cameroun, is still in force, and thus SGS is legally the company that is supposed to carry out the cargo inspection by scanning.
The Customs And PAD Have Their Own Problem
It should be noted that besides this issue of SGS Cameroun and Transatlantic D, the Customs Service at the Douala Port has been having an issue too with the management of PAD, over the control of merchandise or cargo inspection operation at the Douala Port. Both national and international Laws clearly states that it is the Custom that is in charge of merchandised inspection. We see this across the country. So the Customs Service at the Douala, has been arguing that they are ones that are supposed to be controlling the operation of merchandise inspection by scanning, being carried out at the Port by SGS or whichever company. PAD has no expertise in the domain. It should be noted that the Customs Administration again raised this issue at a meeting which was held at the Presidency on January 22, 2026.
“INSPECTION OK”
Meanwhile, the Customs Service at the Douala Port, in reaction to the directives which PAD was giving to importers and exporters with containers, to instead go Transatlantic for inspection, refused to treat with any importer or exporter that did their scanning at Transatlantic. The Customs Service at the Douala Port insisted that it would only accept as evidence that a container had been scanned, if the “INSPECTION OK’, is issued by SGS. This meant that the Customs Service refused to recognize any “INSPECTION OK” issued by Transatlantic D, and so those importers could not pay their custom duties. And when an importer or exporter has not paid custom duty for his container, the container cannot of course be allowed to leave the Port. On their part, the control teams of PAD would not allow any container to leave the Port, if the importer or agent did not present, “INSPECTION OK”, issued by Transatlantic D.
So things got blocked at the container inspection section at the Douala Port, and many importers and exporters got stocked at the port with their containers. The blockage at the container inspection section of the Douala Port was estimated to be causing a loss of 1.5 billion FCFA (one billion, five hundred million francs CFA) a day as revenue.
Ngoh Ngoh Convenes Emergency Meeting At The Presidency
Meanwhile on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, the Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency, Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, addressed an emergency correspondence (No. b2d / D17 / CF / L / CC/ CAB / PR), to the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, in which he informed the minister that the President of the Republic had designated the minister, to represent him at the Extraordinary Meeting of Heads of the States of the Central Africa Economic and Monetary Union, commonly known by the French acronym, CEMAC, which was scheduled to hold the next day (January 22) in Brazzaville, Congo Republic. The Director of Civil Cabinet copied the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.
Then either by design or coincidence, the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, allegedly “on high instruction“ on that same January 21, convened an emergency meeting of the management of PAD and Customs Administration at the Presidency, on Thursday, January 22, 2026, on the crisis at the Douala Port. The meeting was said to be meant at resolving the crisis that had been rocking the Douala Port since January 2, 2026, concerning precisely the inspection of container (scanning) operation.
But scheduling the meeting on that January 22, 026, also meant that the meeting had to hold on a day that the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, who had been insisting that the contract which the Government signed with SGS Scanning Cameroun must be respected, would be out of the country.
Secretary General Avoids Chairing The Meeting
Meanwhile, the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, tried to play smart, by trying to avoid being seen in the forefront of the fight by PAD at the Douala Port, to replace SGS Cameroun with Transatlantic D. Company in the inspection of containers or cargoes by scanning. Ngoh Ngoh did not preside over the meeting between PAD and the Customs Administration which he convened, though he was controlling everything in the background. Rather, he got a Technical Adviser at the Presidency, Jean Claude MAUGER AYEM, to chair the meeting. It should be noted hay there was no official declaration or communiqué issued, at the end of the January 22 meeting at the Presidency.
In an article after the meeting, a Yaounde based journalist, Bruno Bidjang, Boss of Digital B. Agency, known to be quite close to Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, wrote that: “The scanning operations at the Douala Port must henceforth strictly conform to the instructions of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya. This is the principal message of the meeting that held this Thursday between the Port Authority of Douala and the Customs Administration, convened by the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic”. This is our approximate translation. It was definitely by design that Bidjang, completely kept out the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ngoh Ngoh. He even claimed that that the meeting was not convened by the Secretary General, but rather by the General Secretariat at the Presidency.
The NOTE Of A Senior Customs Inspector On The Meeting
Meanwhile, The Mentor News also laid hands on what is termed, NOTE, dated January 22, 2026, on the meeting that brought together representatives of the administrations of PAD and the Customs at the Presidency that was chaired by a Technical Adviser at the Presidency, Jean Claude Mauger Ayem. The NOTE was written by a Senior Inspector of Customs attached to DEPBF, Dr KANDEM FOTSO Michel (Inspecteur Principal des Douane Hors echelle) who was a member of the team that represented the Customs administration at the meeting. 0He said the meeting at the Presidency was on the crisis at the Douala Port, linked to the introduction by the Port Authority of Douala, (PAD) of a new operator in the scanning of merchandises.
The Senior Customs Inspector said the Customs Administration was told at the meeting, that the move that PAD taking as regard the container inspection (scanning ) operation at the Douala Port, was based on the correspondence of ‘Che d’Etat – Major Particulier du President de la Republique’ (The Chief of Special Military Staff of the President of the Republic), stating the “Haut Accord du Chef de ll”Etat, Chief de Forces Armees, en faveur du remplacement de la Societe SGS par Transatlantic , pour securisation du Port Autonome de Douala”. This means that the Chief of Special Military Staff of the President of the Republic stated in a correspondence, that the Head of State, Chief of the Armed Forces, had given his High Accord that SGS should be replaced with Transatlantic, at the Douala Port, for the Port to be better secured.
Crisis At Douala Port Causing An Estimated Loss Of 1.5 Billion FCFA Daily In Revenue
The Senior Customs Inspector said a number of issues were raised by the different parties at the January 22, 2026 meeting at the Presidency. One of the issues raised was the fact that the contract that the Government signed with SGS on March 2, 2015, did not end on March 2, 2025 as some people think, but will rather end on April 11, 2032. Another issue raised was that there was an estimated loss of about 1.5 billion francs CFA in revue, as a consequence of the blockage of merchandises or goods at the Douala Port, since January 2, 2026, due to the crisis. Another important issue that was raised at the meeting was a divergence that has been ranging between PAD and the Customs at the Douala Port, as to which of the two administrations has the competence in the domain of the security control of goods at the Port.
Two Principal Resolutions
The Senior Customs Inspector, Dr Kandem Fotso Michel, disclosed in his NOTE, that by the end of the January 22 meeting at the Presidency, two principal resolutions were adopted:
- That all the merchandises already scanned by Transatlantic D., should be liberated immediately, and that the General Manager of Customs and the General Manager of PAD, should both outlined the modalities.
- That the different parties should wait for a clear Government position on the choice of the operator that will continue the merchandise scanning operation at the Port. This was considering the fact that PAD and the Customs did not agree on the claim that President Biya had allegedly given his approval that Transatlantic should replace SGS Cameroun, in carrying out cargo inspection at the Douala Port. The Customs Service at the Port has been sticking to the position of the Head of their Technical Ministry, that is, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, who has been insisting that the contract that the Government signed with SGS, is still valid. The Customs also have much doubt over the allegation that President Biya has given his accord that Transatlantic D should replace SGS in cargo inspection at the Douala Port.
