The Central Africa sub-regional holds its first workshop on import of safer and cleaner used vehicles

Close to 50 participants from 6 Central African countries met in Yaoundé, Cameroon on 9-10 July 2024, to discuss the importation of safer and cleaner used vehicles. Participants - drawn from Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Gabon, Congo, and Equatorial Guinea prepared a roadmap with actions to ensure the sub-region imports better-quality used vehicles. It was noted that all the countries present at the workshop rely heavily on import of used vehicles, with countries like Cameroon having about 96% of its additional vehicle fleet imported as used. Gabon is reversing some of the progress made to restrict the age of imported used vehicles increasing the age limit from a maximum of 3 years to 5 years and currently at 10 years. Each of the countries present at the workshop shared their national policies and regulatory measures on vehicle imports, which were found to be inadequate. This inadequacy contributes to the high importation of an aging fleet that is not only highly pollutive but also fails to meet minimum safety standards.