Building Permits in Cameroon: Online Application to start in January

The system will help reduce the burden of paper work, increases speed and transparency in the processing of files. The Secretary General of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MINDHU) was lately in Douala to review and validate report which will pave the way for the creation of One-Stop-Shop for the application, treatment and deliverance of building permits online. The objective of the workshop was to enrich and validate the report on the SGAC Development Strategy. Tunisian experts working on the project belonging to the ST2 International (subsidiary of Studi International) say the system will be ready for use at the Douala City Council in January. The importance of such an electronic management of building permits is that it reduces work load, enhances speed and transparency in the processing of the documents. Participants appreciated the observations and analyses formulated in order to allow the structure to continue its services with data shared by all the actors involved in the setting up of the electronic system for the management of the documents. The project’s current phase opens the stage for the effective implementation of the electronic system. For this purpose, some FCFA 300,000,000 was earmarked in the Public Investment Budget of MINDHU for the current financial year. Participants contributed to enriching and validating the proposal for new procedures for the issuance of urban planning acts, the action plan for the operationalisation of procedures, the specifications of the target system, the test plan of the revised system in the Douala III, etc. Since the 3rd session of the Cameroon Business Forum, the Prime Minister has been prescribing a clear improvement in the cost and processing time of building permit applications, with the recommendation that the procedures be computerised and One-stop shops set up for issuing building permits in Douala and Yaounde. The implementation of these recommendations and the need to control the uncontrolled development of Cameroon’s cities led the Ministry to launch the process of improving the effectiveness of urban planning and issuance tools. It is within this framework that the Ministry has undertaken to support the Douala City Council in the process of computerisation and dematerialisation of the procedures for the issuance of urban planning documents in order to lighten these procedures and to ensure the speed of file processing and reduce costs. Source: Cameroon Tribune