Interview
Josiah Syanda, FAO expert “the Cameroon system to create an electronic document that can be acceptable by the receiving system on the other side”
One of the requirements of the agreement is that the national plant profession organization which is competent authority is required to issue a confirmation that the plant product carried from their own country with meets the importing obligation. The only way to attest that the plant products have met those requirements is through a document which is a factocentric certificate document. This fact centric document is a government-to-government communication which informs the importing country that all the requirements relating to confirmers of that particular consignment have been met and so they are documented on a factocentric structure. A factocentric document is a critical document relating to any form of business across the borders or any other article associated with plant or better still any business or material or consignment that has the capability of carrying a plant test is supposed to be regulated under plant protection
What can you say on Cameroon’s rectification of this critical phytosanitary certificate?
Every business person is expected to communicate the factocentric document in the right moment and in a good manner and the document should not be fake so that the consignment can be accepted on the other side. Therefore if there is any delay on the factocentric certificate, it means that the business cannot go as far as it should. As Cameroon goes into electronic certification it means that they are facilitating trade, enhancing and helping the Cameroon business community to move faster and get their consignment faster. The second thing is that the plant materials being exported will not be delayed or denied entry at the other side because the electronic information needed by the importing authorities to accept, would already have been received thereby enhancing the business environment. Thirdly, the trade facilitation agreement under the world trade organization stipulates that there should be ease in doing business; therefore Cameroon is also fulfilling the requirements of the trade facilitation agreement by dematerializing this document so that they can also be of those recognized as a country that is easy for doing business.
Is it the reality on the ground?
The first thing towards dematerialization to create the structures, that is the systems, the hardware and the personel.The users should also be trained so that they are able to move towards that. The second thing is the implementation, which uses the infrastructure to transmit the document from Cameroon to the receiving country. At where we are now, doctors are in place and the training in place. What is remaining is the transmission of the electronic document to the receiving country without having to lose anything
What is Cameroon expected to do concretely to see that this report is transmitted as soon as possible?
They already have a piloting stage which I have been able to see and I think what is to be done now is to complete the transmission of the data to the receiving country. That is what is remaining. What is needed at the moment is for the Cameroon system to create an electronic document that can be acceptable by the receiving system on the other side. The International Plants Operations Organization responsible for setting standards on plants has created an electronic certification means in which an exporting country can use that means to exchange with the receiving country. There is need for Cameroon to configure its sending system to send the electronic document in a manner that can be accepted and decrypted by the receiving country and used by the receiving country. I am confident that the kind of piloting that has been going on and the trials going on may merit a successful document.
Since the Food and Agriculture Organization brought this concept of phytosanitary certification, how many countries have been involved in this initiative and what has been your evaluation of this concept so far?
Between 2013 and 2015 a study was carried out which indicated that most rejections of exported consignments is because the documents are not acceptable. A document could be rejected by a receiving country because of presence of pests, because the documents are not good enough or not correct. This triggered the innovation to have a mechanism that can heal the problem of the documents and that is how the E-phyto certification came out. In 2017, we started working on that certification; in 2019, it was implemented and from then till date, we have 101 countries that are already on the problem. Cameroon is in the testing phase, Kenya is already implementing. Within Africa, we have Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa; these are the countries already doing exchange.
What can Cameroon benefit from this concept?
Cameroon will greatly benefit. If you look at the number of rejections of phytosanitary documents that are related to consignments from Cameroon, I can say more that 30% of the rejections are due to the documents and that can be reduced. When a consignment is rejected, it is for many reasons, which can be the trader, the logistic provider even the people that started the consignment. It is the risk of the consignments getting destroyed. Some of them can get spoiled.
You are an expert of the Food and Agriculture Organization and in Cameroon to oversee this concept; what are some of the difficulties you have observed in Cameroon that need to be handled to enable Cameroon move ahead in this initiative?
Let me begin by saying that Cameroon is a great country; the government and the Cameroon people are working together towards the implementation and innovation and being part of the global community in terms of business competitiveness. The difficulty is that some of them mostly operational where there is need to use people who are adopting the innovations to understand its usefulness, to be aware of what is to be done and to move towards that change. So the first is change management. The government as well as the private sector needs to have that change management. The second critical thing is that it is an Internet-based system therefore there is need for the enhancement of internet services. Thus this is a platform where communication happens.
When should Cameroon handle all these difficulties?
You cannot change overnight, people need to adopt and see the benefits then they can continue to adopt more changes. I think for the adoption and innovation, they should have started and those in charge should collaborate so that the implementation period become shorter
Mr Josiah Syanda, it was a pleasure having you talk to us
My pleasure. For the first time I hop that Cameroon can become a global leading country in terms of innovation.