Transport fare increase; a nightmare to many Cameroonians

Whether you are travelling to Bamenda, Yaounde, Kumba, just to name a few, you must pay additional transport fee. The increase of transport fare however varies from FCFA 500 to FCFA 1000 depending on your destination and agency.

Samuel Ade Azuah, a manager of one of the travelling agencies at the Mile17 Motor Park in Buea says, "the transport sector is a domain where there is a lot of competition as everyone sees it as a free trade zone, whereby every transporter determines what price to take from a passenger, irrespective of the tariff that the Government has given.”

Although the Government allocates the transport fare from Buea to Bamenda at FCFA 5,615, all travelling agencies agreed to put it at FCFA 6,000.

Another manager of a travelling agency, Etienne Heunga explained that in order to attract customers, his agency has adopted a marketing strategy which is keeping the tariff of most destinations like Yaounde as it used to be and increasing others like Bamenda. “This is because my agency does not regularly have many customers travelling to Yaounde, as is the care with Bamenda where the customers are many and regular,” he explained, adding that he has only increased the fare to Bamenda because others did.

A Kumba bus driver, Maurice Ndanjem went on to say that the transport fare has not increased on their part because; most often they negotiate the price with their customers. He, however, says that Kumba bus drivers are now strict in collecting the FCFA 1,500 fares, unlike before when they could end up collecting FCFA 1,000 after negotiation.

Henry Ntoh, a regular traveller, says he is a low income earner working in the private sector and is not happy with the increase, but that he has no choice than to continue patronising transport even though his salary remains the same.

Talking to The Post, a traveller, Anthony Ojong said that the price increase does not affect his travelling rate in anyway, but feels that the amount added by the various travelling agencies is extremely much and unfair.

Although some people continue travelling as they did before, others find it difficult nowadays to travel for leisure.

On their part, managers of various travelling agencies in Buea consider this increase in transport fare as very insignificant because the profit they use to make before is not the same as the one now, since the price of one litre of fuel has moved from FCFA 520 to FCFA 600, which they say is too much.

This situation is the cause of the joint memorandum from all transporters to the Minister of Economy and Finance and the Minister of Transport, pleading with them to readjust the issue of transportation in Cameroon.