Cameroon unveils upgraded digital procurement system with $12M Korean grant

The government of Cameroon has launched an upgraded version of a digital procurement system dubbed COLEPS.

Public Contracts Minister, Ibrahim Talba Malla, recently presided over the launching ceremony of the platform which was set up with the support of grant funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to the tune of $12.5 million.

COLEPS is an acronym for Cameroon Online e-Procurement System.

Speaking at the event, Malla said the upgrade to the COLEPS platform makes online contract signing and real-time monitoring now possible as part of efforts by the government to improve transparency in the country’s procurement system. Real time monitoring means that the system will be integrated with banks and financial institution for bid securities and performance guarantees to be verified via an automated mechanism.

Malla said it will also act as a one-stop-shop aimed at boosting efficiency and service delivery while curbing corruption and reducing costs in contract bidding and award processes.

This, the minister added, is in line with the government’s vision of making Cameroon a leader in e-procurement in Central Africa, a move that will be further strengthened with subsequent components of the project, also due to benefit from KOICA’s support.

“This grant has enabled the materialization of public contract procedures under the first and second phases of the e-procurement project, hence the advent of this new and elaborate version of COLEPS,” Malla stated.

“In 2026, the Republic of Korea will provide an additional grant of US$12.5 million to implement interoperability between COLEPS and the information systems of stakeholders in the public contracts sector, as well as to construct the e-procurement project’s headquarters.”

According to the public contracts minister, the full range of digital services on the COLEPS platform will be rollout by 2028, when all public contract procurements will be expected to be done entirely online.

COLEPS was launched in 2018 in a move by the Cameroonian government to digitize and modernize its procurement system within its broader digital transformation vision. It was also meant to drastically curb corruption in the public procurement sector as that year, the sector was identified as one of the most corrupt by the country’s anti-graft agency, CONAC.

Among other things, the digital procurement system is used for publishing public contract tenders, registering bidders and contracting authorities, digital submission and evaluation of bids, and tracking the procurement process digitally.

With the first phase of the project, the digital procurement involved a limited number of services but that has now been expanded with the phase II launch.

Beyond financing, COLEPS has also had Korea’s support in terms of system design and implementation.

Other African countries like Ethiopia are also strengthening their digital procurement systems for greater efficiency by linking them with national digital ID.

Article Topics

Cameroon  |  digital government  |  government purchasing  |  procurement