Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management software in Cameroon has to follow goods along a long and uneven route: containers landed at the ports of Douala or Kribi, cleared through customs, stored in warehouses in Bonabéri or Yaoundé, then trucked to Garoua, Ngaoundéré or across the border to N’Djamena and Bangui. Opesware’s Supply Chain suite and custom logistics software give importers, distributors, transporters, agro-processors and exporters one view of orders, stock and shipments along that route.

The supply chain also runs in the other direction. Agro-processors, cooperatives and exporters buy cocoa, coffee, maize or other produce from many small producers spread across rural areas. There, the software records each purchase at the collection point: producer, weight, quality grade, price and payment, which can be made by MTN MoMo or Orange Money instead of carrying large amounts of cash. Lots are then followed from collection to warehouse, processing and export, so the company knows where every bag came from and what it cost.

1. Procurement. Purchase requests are approved, orders are sent to local or foreign suppliers, and expected arrivals are tracked.
2. Import and customs files. Each shipment carries its documents, costs and status, so the team knows which containers are at the port, in clearance or released. Freight, duties and handling are added to the landed cost of each item.
3. Warehousing. Goods are received by location, batch and, where relevant, expiry date, with stock counts, transfers and minimum levels.
4. Distribution. Customer orders become picking lists, loads and delivery notes assigned to trucks and drivers.
5. Proof of delivery and payment. Drivers confirm deliveries on a mobile app, and payments by MTN MoMo, Orange Money, bank transfer or cash are matched to invoices in FCFA.

Drivers on the corridors from Douala to Chad and the Central African Republic spend hours without a data signal. Our driver and warehouse apps are offline-first: they record deliveries, stock movements and incidents locally and synchronise whenever a network is available. Head office dashboards show what has been confirmed, what is late and what is stuck.

For fleets, we link vehicle tracking with trips, fuel and maintenance through our fleet management software. Exporters of timber, cocoa or coffee who must prove origin to European buyers can add plot and lot traceability with our EUDR traceability software, and clearing agents can look at our customs clearing software.

We start where the losses are: stock that disappears between the port and the warehouse, deliveries nobody can confirm, or landed costs that are guessed. After mapping your flows with the people who run them, we configure the suite; import items, suppliers, customers, warehouses and vehicles; and connect it to accounting so that receipts, deliveries and invoices post to the SYSCOHADA ledger through our ERP work. Warehouse staff, dispatchers and drivers are trained in English or French on the screens they use every day.

Once the data flows, management can track what matters for its own business: orders delivered on time, stock that has not moved for months, items close to expiry, cost per delivery or per route, and suppliers who are often late. Those indicators come from the same transactions the teams record every day, not from a separate report prepared at the end of the month.

Support runs from our Douala office, with remote help and scheduled visits for sites elsewhere in Cameroon and in the other CEMAC countries. Talk to us about your supply chain.