Minister of Transport Ngalle Bibehe Jean Ernest Massena.

A new online platform for the verification of the validity and authenticity of vehicle roadworthiness certificates has been rolled out in Cameroon. 

CT-VERIF, which is publicly accessible online at www.mintct.cm, was deployed this week by the country’s Ministry of Transport, with the technical support of Catis S.A, the local representative of French anti-counterfeiting and anti-forgery security solutions provider Prooftag SAS.

Minister of Transport Ngalle Bibehe Jean Ernest Massena said the innovation is part of ongoing efforts to secure the technical control process and the issuance of car roadworthiness licences as part of the fight against road accidents related to the technical state of vehicles. 

According to the minister, CT-VERIF will help address the issue of vehicles circulating without roadworthiness certificates or with fake ones.

“The platform will henceforth be used not only by the various teams in charge of roadside checks, but also by insurance companies and whenever the presentation of a roadworthiness certificate is required,” Massena said.

Last year, the transport ministry rolled out a similar platform 'TRANSDOCS', which can instantly verify the status of a vehicle registered in Cameroon by inserting the chassis number in the database of the Transport Document Securing System.

These deployments are coming against the backdrop of a fraud frenzy in the country. Over the last few years, the production and use of fake documents in public business has taken a dangerous turn. 

In 2022, the government dismissed about 1 000 army recruits in training after it was discovered that they had used fake academic certificates for their recruitment.

Also, in a latest disclosure, Cameroon’s Public Contracts Regulatory Agency released a list of 567 companies, which had used counterfeit documents, including fake registration certificates and taxpayer’s card, to bid for public contracts in 2013. 

Similarly, the police has often paraded gangs of counterfeiters arrested in possession of fake documents, including birth certificates, national identity card receipts, academic certificates, car registration certificates and driving licences.

Since counterfeit documents in Cameroon are often detected through manual verification processes by end users, which are prone to errors and are painstaking and time-consuming, the government has opted for digital verification solutions.

Other government departments and agencies have also taken action, with the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies in 2020 rolling out Doc Authentic, a comprehensive software package to be incorporated in the information management systems of public and private institutions in the country. 

The software secures administrative and official documents with a digital signature.