Yaounde taxi fares now at 250 CFA, commuters livid

An explosion of taxi fares is the bitter conclusion for users of urban and interurban transport since last week’s fuel price increase.

In Yaounde, the motorists did not wait for the proposal to increase transport costs to be validated by the public authorities, in fact the Yaoundé to Bamenda line now passes 6000 FCFA, a protective measure in their eyes.

After a meeting between unions and several members of the government on Friday, July 4, the taxi fare shot up from 200 FCFA to 250 FCFA in one day.

Manga Serges, who lives Ekounou, says he spent 250 FCFA to reach the post-plant. The same goes for Maryline who lives in Bastos. She said the driver demanded his 250FCFA before they set off and did not hesitate to reiterate to her that from now on it would be ‘like that’.

This attitude is not illegal, because the ministerial order determining tariffs of taxis provides that the passenger and the driver agree to go beyond or fall below the approved fare.

It wouldn’t be surprising if commuters from Yaoundé to Bamenda shed a little tear on Friday evening when they noticed a 1000 FCFA increase of their usual 5000.

Some motorists say they watched on television, Patrice Samen, president of the National Union of drivers and urban and interurban transport of Cameroon, express his surprise: "They already increased?" He asks before recalling that in reality his speech on national television resulted in a proposal to the government in the effect to "balance" the revenue and expenditure of taxi drivers and the “forgotten" accompanying measures prescribed by the government.

The union says: “After the rise in oil prices, employers had their accompanying measures through the reduction of certain taxes and civil servants were promised an increase in their salaries. But the taxi drivers have been abandoned to their fate because they are the ones who pay the fuel. That is why we make this proposal to the government to allow us to balance our income and expenditure and to feed our families."

This increase of 50 FCFA, is 25 per cent more than the original price. "This is compared to 80 FCFA more fuel," retorted Patrice Samen, suggesting that it would only be justified if the fuel had increased 25 FCFA. “That we could bear, but 80 FCFA is just too much."

Ultimately it is the consumer who pays the price. Yimga Moussa, President of the National Association of the informal sector that operators in the fight against poverty in Cameroon (Anosilp), plans a demonstration on 15 July, to protest the increase taxi fares is not a solution.

He asks if they believe people will be able to pay the 50 CFCA increase when passengers already struggle to pay the current price, before stressing that the government should start by solving social problems, because if this were the case, the impact of rising oil prices would have been less noticeable.