MTN Cameroon, transport ministry evaluate partnership in curbing road accidents.

As part of the multiple attempts to achieve the objective of "zero road accidents", the transport ministry launched a surveillance system on February, 28, 2022.

The said solution, " Ym@ne Driver", a product of the company, BeSa@fe, is a centralised management and monitoring solution for inter-urban buses. 

It aims at preventing and reducing accidents and anticipate risky driving behaviour of bus, truck drivers.

Amongst other features, it has a control room with dedicated agents 24/7, visibility of the entire fleet of equipped vehicles, real-time interventions with companies, establishment of daily reports, personalised access to monitoring the insured fleet amongst others. 

Speaking to reporters recently in Douala about the development, the MTN Business Officials led by Thierry Menjos, said road safety is a major issue of concern to the Ministry of Transport.

Menjos said in 2022, statistics indicated that 3,000 people had lost their lives to road accidents, with overall losses estimated at more than 800 billion FCFA per year. 

He said BeS@fe, a company born from the private consortium CAMTRACK-MTN Cameroon, signed a partnership with the Ministry of Transport of Cameroon. 

This company's major mission, he revealed, was to ensure management and centralised monitoring of interurban road transport of vehicles transporting people and goods on Cameroon's roads, through the intelligent and innovative Ym@ne Driver.

After two years of experimentation, the solution has proven itself efficiently by helping to reduce the accident rate by 90% among companies whose vehicles are equipped with its on-board equipment. 

The figures, Menjos said, were achieved after the ministry imposed the installation of intelligent cameras on all urban transport companies whose vehicles were involved in fatal accidents. 

“However, it has now become mandatory for the fleet of all transport companies. The deadline is set for March 31, 2025. In the meantime, work to improve the technology is intensifying," he said

Encouraging prospects 

Studies have shown that man is responsible for 70% of road accidents on highways, the condition of vehicles accounts for 20% and poor road infrastructure accounts for 10%. 

Statistics gathered in the month of January 2025 alone, and which were presented to the press, states that out of the 1,500 vehicles equipped with Bes@fe cameras, 35,200 cases of speeding and 304 cases of driver drowsiness were recorded. 

To intensify the development of the intelligent and innovative solution, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of CAMTRACK, Hilaire Tinen, announced that the system has been improved with cutting-edge technology to send alerts to drivers in violation and to immobilise vehicles so that imminent accidents can be avoided. 

“It also alerts cases of administrative failure by reporting the expiry date of car documents but we don't intend to stop there as in the coming days, we will introduce advanced technology so that the system allows vehicles to capture speed limit signs which will impose on drivers to respect it and also to force compliance with the safety distance between two vehicles. There is also prospect of an interconnection between the video surveillance centers of the police and the gendarmerie, this is in the pipeline,” he said. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3388 of Monday March 10, 2025