Since 2019, commercial exchanges have resumed between northern Nigeria and Cameroon’s Far North. Improved security along the corridor has allowed transporters to hit the road again and revived customs revenue. But as climate shocks batter the region, can this fragile economic recovery hold?
By our correspondent, back from Maroua
A convoy of heavy trucks from Nigeria sits idle on both sides of the sandy track linking Africa’s economic giant to Cameroon. These convoys were once prime targets for Boko Haram attacks. The situation has improved, according to Aboubacar Mahamed, a Nigerian driver hauling sacks of millet toward N’Djamena, Chad. “From Nigeria, from Kano through Maiduguri, from Maiduguri to Banki to enter Kourgui, we had no problem. There is security from Kourgui to Amchidé and to Yagoua, no problem on the road.”
Despite the corridor’s improved security, Aboubacar Mahamed says it’s best to travel at certain hours: “The Cameroonian soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion are making great efforts, but for us, if the truck breaks down between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., it’s better to spend the night in that village or in the bush,” he explains. “And around 6 a.m. the next morning, you can start. It’s better to start moving from 6 a.m. and park around 5 p.m.”
To reach Kourgui, these truckers pass through Limani, the main customs office on the Cameroonian side. Closed in 2014 because of Boko Haram abuses, it reopened seven years ago.
Célestin Delanga, a specialist on Lake Chad Basin security issues at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), stresses the importance of resuming trade between the two countries: “Cameroon exports food crops and livestock to Nigeria, and imports fuel, textiles, electronics, and spare parts, among other goods,” the researcher lists. “This helps ensure economic security. Improved traffic, along with a stronger security apparatus along cross-border trade routes, is helping to revitalize commercial exchanges.”
Local populations, long battered by Boko Haram’s abuses, are also reaping the benefits of this economic uptick. For Célestin Delanga, cross-border trade now plays a vital role in a region facing new climate-related hardships. “Two years ago, floods destroyed crops and livelihoods. This year, drought is crippling the rainy season, so cross-border trade is a kind of lifeline,” he says.
The trade improvement is driving customs revenue ambitions to 741 billion CFA francs for the first nine months of 2026. That figure was just one billion CFA francs in 2023.
