The road toll tax in Cameroon is a tax established by decree No. 93/034/PM of 01/07/1993 setting the terms of the toll tax on certain asphalted roads of the national road network. The Ministry of Finance (MINFI), within the framework of its powers, is responsible, through the Directorate General of Taxation (DGI), for the collection of road toll revenues in Cameroon. Based on certain irregularities observed in the collection of road toll revenue, the DGI decided following a call for applications in 2017 to proceed with the selection of a technical partner to help secure the toll road revenue collection.
Following the aforementioned call for applications, Intelligent Transport Systems abbreviated “ITS”, a company specialized in the field of Computer Engineering and telecommunications in Cameroon was selected to implement its system called -“Automated Automobile Counting System” or better known by its french acronym “Système Automatisé de Comptage Automobile” (SACA) – on 42 toll stations apart from the 14 stations allocated to the Razel-Bec-Egis consortium.
To achieve this result, a study of ITS proposal led to the carrying out of an evaluation of the SACA system on May 23 and 24, 2018, by engineers from the Ministry of Finance. It consisted of verifying the conformity of ITS solution with the Cameroonian road toll activity. At the end of this work, the satisfaction rate was estimated at 70%.
As part of a broader consultation with other Administrations concerned by road toll activity, instructed by the Minister of Finance, further consultations were made in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Defense. This resulted in the decision to conduct a second test in a real environment of a road toll station that takes into account all the components of the system, so that they could corroborate the conclusions of the previous evaluation.
By letter No. 000590/L/MINFI/DSI/CED of March 15, 2019, the Minister of Finance designated the staff of his ministerial department in collaboration with those of other administrations involved in road tolls (MINTP, MINT, MINDEF) to conduct the test of the SACA solution in a real environment. The site chosen for this purpose was the NSIMALEN (EKOKO I) toll station. The Minister of Public Works by letter No. 2974/L/MINTP/SG/DGTI/DEPPR/DEPPR40/DEPPR42/IA3 of April 15, 2019 for his part indicated his agreement for some residual work to be carried out on this pilot site with a view to the construction of an experimental toll station.
At the end of the testing phase of the Ekoko I experimental toll station, the “SACA” system was preferred over that of CAMPOST by the interministerial committee in charge of the management of this project.
It should be noted that Mr. Sah Belinga Basile, general manager of ITS, is an engineer in industrial computing, telecommunications and digital electronics, and has an extensive experience of more than 25 years acquired in the field of automation in the USA and Africa.