Customs revenue were up significantly as compared to fiscal year 2018. This is due to the growing number of vessels and the volume of goods handled on the port platform during 2019.
The first quarter of 2020 is over, and it must be noted that the Coronavirus pandemic has not interrupted port activities. However, it has somewhat impacted the particularly ambitious forecasts of the Port Authority of Kribi (PAK), supported by the good achievements of 2019. In fact, Thursday 16 April 2020 was the day of stocktaking for the port authority of Kribi. Due to COVID-19, which imposes social distancing, Patrice MELOM, the General Manager of the PAK convened, by video-conference, the port community of Kribi in order to draw up the balance sheet of the 2019 operations and at the same time, unveil the prospects for 2020. On the retrospective, all the stakeholders of the platform agree that compared to 2018, the year when Kribi port started its operations, 2019 has delivered on all the expectations.
Michael MAMA, PAK's Operations Manager indicates that 331 ship calls were handled in 2019 as compared to 295 in 2018, that is an increase by12%. 8.534 MT (million tonnes) of cargo handled compared to 7.019 MT in 2018, an increase by 17%. Also, the balance sheet of the operations clearly shows that Kribi fully plays its role as a break-out port, with more than 80% of transhipment activities. Although on the rise, the share of domestic activity unfortunately remains focused on imports, which also epitomises the national economy.
Norbert BELINGA, Head, South II Customs Sector, was very enthusiastic that this Sector, which essentially covers the port of Kribi, is now ranked second in terms of revenue collection by the General Directorate of Customs, just behind Littoral Sector I, overtaking Littoral II. A positive repositioning that can be explained by the figures: "In terms of non-oil customs revenue, the South II Customs Sector collected CFAF 24 210 488 703 at the end of 2019, against CFAF 9 793 913 035 for the previous financial year. In terms of oil revenue, it grew from CFAF 29 542 488 590 in 2018 to CFAF 35 012 943 441 in 2019," Norbert BELINGA explains. Thus, nearly 60 billion CFA francs were paid to the Treasury last financial year. Looking ahead, it should be noted that at the end of the first quarter of 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the South II Customs Sector has achieved 108.83% of its objectives, i.e. a revenue of 10,083,193,956 F CFA compared to the expected 9,264,700,000 F CFA.
Patrice MELOM has praised the entire port community of Kribi for the option of dematerialisation of procedures and payments. An alternative which, according to the General Manager, has boosted the attractiveness of the Kribi destination and fully justified its current resilience in times of the bad wind called COVIF-19.
