The 9th edition of the Cameroon government exhibition forum dubbed “Sago” kicked off in the capital city Yaoundé on Tuesday to promote public actions towards development and stimulate citizens’ participation in public affairs.

The fair saw the participation of all government structures and partners and a large number of companies, according to Emmanuel Rene Sadi, minister of communication and government spokesman who officially opened the fair.

“Sago’s objective is to let people know about what the government is doing and to also let our fellow citizens know exactly what we, the government, offer opportunities of investment,” Sadi told reporters at the start of the fair.

“There are so many things that we are doing in this country, which are not known by fellow citizens. An initiative like this needs to be sustained,” he added.

During the week-long event, different ministerial departments will organise conferences where they explain their actions to the public.

The fair, taking place in strict respect of COVID-19 barrier measures, will enable development partners to understand the real needs of the population in order to redirect their support, Sadi said.

Source: Xinhaunet

Cameroon will build a $3 billion hydro-power plant as part of an ambitious plan to make the central African nation an exporter of electricity by 2035.

The 810-megawatt Grand Eweng project on the Sanaga River, a joint venture between the government and the U.S.-based energy company Hydromine Inc., is the fifth hydro-project on the river.

The new installation will start generating power by 2028 and capacity will increase to over 1 gigawatt several years after that, according to Lucas Briger, vice president of development and operations at the New York-based project developer.

“The Grand Eweng was initially intended to supply the aluminum sector,” Briger said in an interview. Rising demand in the nation of 25 million people has since positioned the project to supply the general public.

Cameroon, which currently has about 1.5 gigawatts of installed power, could see demand grow to 3 gigawatts by 2035, according to its Energy Ministry.

President Paul Biya’s government has pledged to generate 25% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035, with a plan to export power to neighbors such as Chad, the Central African Republic and Nigeria. Small hydro- and solar-power sources accounted for just 4.5% of Cameroon’s installed capacity in 2019, according to BloombergNEF data.

A draft law meant to draw investment to the renewable energy sector is still being worked on, said Valerie Nkue, a director at the Energy Ministry.

The company plans to announce equity co-shareholders by the end of the year, Briger said, with the expectation the project would be financed 20-25% from equity and as much as 80% from debt.

Single Offtaker

While the government of Cameroon hasn’t so far committed to invest, the monopoly utility ENEO will be the sole buyer of the power. The additional output will likely be sold to companies like Alucam, an aluminum smelter that has lacked electricity to meet its production capacity of 100,000 tons a year. A World Bank-supported interconnection project, once completed, will also allow Cameroon to sell energy to Chad, which has one of the lowest electrification rates in the world.

The Grand Eweng dam would follow the 420-megawatt Nachtigal project, which also harnesses the Sanaga River, and to which the Bank provided $784.5 million of financing in 2018.

“The Nachtigal project provides a template on how financially a project can be developed in a way that acceptable to all parties involved,” said Briger.

Hydro-power has been a cheap, reliable source of renewable energy around the world for decades but the large-scale infrastructure projects have come under fire for the environmental damage they cause to rivers and the ecosystems they support.

The Sanaga River basin “is an important source of life for Cameroon’s flora and fauna,” said Sakah Mathias, the managing director of Sanys Global Consulting, a Yaounde-based consultancy that does sustainability studies. “The construction of five dams along the river is a serious threat,” he said.

Briger said the project complies with international and Cameroon environmental standards.

The plant could allow the country to “fully eliminate its polluting thermal power capacity,” he said.

Source:  Bloomberg.com

Short of viable planes, Camair-Co is under some form of CPDM pressure after ministers’ road accident in the Far North Region of French Cameroun.

The three French Cameroun members of government were forced to travel by road for want of available Camair-Co aircraft and ended up in a river. The accident puts the national carrier’s management in a bind, reported Africa Intelligence.

Yaounde says the economies of its troubled English-speaking western regions are collapsing as a result of the country’s four-year separatist conflict.  Officials say the ongoing fighting has made tax revenues in the English-speaking Northwest region drop from $800,000 annually to just $1,000 last year. The lack of government funds has had devastating effects on the region. 

Fotso Dominique, the most senior government economic official in the English-speaking Northwest region, says separatist fighters have succeeded in chasing customs and tax officials from almost all crossing points along the border with Nigeria.

Speaking on Cameroon state television, Dominique said there has been a 90% drop in imports of building materials, drugs, vehicles, electronics and basic commodities from Nigeria.  This, he says, while civilians have been deprived of basic supplies and state coffers left with huge shortfalls.

“Before 2016, the customs duty collection was more than 200 million Francs [$ 363,000] in Donga Mantung and about 150 million [$ 273,000] from Menchum Division giving us a total of about 305 million [$552,000] per annum. As we talk, Donga Mantung last year collected less than 500,000 [$ 900] and nothing was collected from the Menchum area,” he said.

Cameroon’s government this month reported that the country’s second largest employer — the Cameroon Development Corporation — had abandoned most of its banana, palm oil, and rubber plantations.  It owes as much as a year’s worth of backpay to 6,000 of its 22,000 workers.

The Palm Oil Company PAMOL and other agro industrial companies say they are now heavily in debt.

Microfinance institutions that power the economies of Cameroon’s English-speaking regions say they are unable to recover $50 million in loans. 

Merchants have either escaped to safer areas in the French-speaking regions or can not repay loans because their businesses are closed due to the fighting.

The separatists have said on social media that their intention is to ruin Cameroon government state coffers. Fighters say they want to make the English-speaking regions ungovernable until they obtain their independence. 

Residents and businesspeople say anyone who disobeys the fighters’ calls for a lockdown or is seen paying taxes is subject to retribution. 

Businessman Protus Awnaga says he almost lost his life for disobeying instructions from fighters not to go on a business trip on the week a lockdown was imposed.

“That is the most awful moment I have ever had in my life. Face to face with gunmen like this. And they ordered us out of the car. We saw our things being burnt, but we were even thankful to God because they should have burnt us with the car. It is terrible. It is deplorable,” he said.

Economist Tasoh Gerald says the consequences of the crisis weighs on the government but it is civilians who are caught in the fighting who suffer most. They include people whose businesses were either torched by separatists for disobeying their instructions to not pay taxes or those whose property was burnt by the military, which accused them of supporting the fighters.

“It has discouraged investments in this region. A fall in investments implies a rise in unemployment and a general fall in the standards of living. Also, most of the councils in these regions find it difficult to settle their debts and pay their workers,” he said. “Another consequence is the near collapse of the tourism sector. Most of the recreational areas and tourist sites are abandoned. Most of those in the working age group have migrated to other regions leaving behind the old and the young in the villages. This high migration implies less farm labor and consequently a fall in agricultural productivity in these regions.” 

The suffering has not deterred neither the government nor the fighters. Both have maintained their positions for the past four years. The separatists are asking for the creation of a breakaway English-speaking state while the government maintains that Cameroon cannot be divided. 

The United Nations says the conflict has killed more than three thousand people and displaced more than 500,000. Fifty thousand others are asylum seekers in neighboring Nigeria.

Source: VOA 

Joseph Dion Ngute, the Prime Minister of Cameroon, has told the Ministry of Finance to open up ailing state-run companies to the capital and management of the private sector next year, the African economic news agency Ecofin reported.

During a special cabinet meeting held to examine the budget and economic plan for the period 2021 to 2023, the prime minister presented guidelines to finance minister Louis-Paul Motazé on the viability of certain public companies in need of fresh financing.

Neither official named the enterprises concerned, but according to the 2019 report of the country’s Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public Enterprises (Commission Technique de Réhabilitation des Entreprises du Secteur Public et Parapublic), a number of companies are in need of private capital and the comparative dynamism that comes with private management.

The report named Camair-Co (QC, Douala) as being one of them, alongside the National Refining Company (Sonara), the Cameroon Aluminium Company (Alucam), chemicals giant Cicam, the Chantier Naval shipyards, and the national telecommunications and postal services.

The prime minister instructed the finance minister to prioritise partnerships “by identifying those public enterprises whose capital can be opened to the private sector to relieve the public treasury and increase their performance,” a statement released after the meeting said.

Presenting the main points of the 2021-2023 plan before the parliamentary budget committee on July 5, Motazé explained that to remedy the unsustainable outflow of state revenue and avoid over-indebting the country, “public enterprises may be subject to measures aimed at improving their productivity and profitability,” as this would “help the state to increase its budget revenue, improve its job provision performance, and boost economic activity in the sectors in which these enterprises operate.”

Source: Ch-aviation.com

Energy company Victoria Oil & Gas said it had terminated a gas sales agreement in Cameroon after state-backed buyer ENEO Cameroon was unable to make payments.

ENEO was majority owned by London-based investment company Actis, which had a 51% stake, with the Cameroon government owning 44% and its employees owning the remaining 5%.

Victoria Oil & Gas, through subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun, had been supplying natural gas to ENEO’s Logbaba power plant since 2015 ‘despite ENEO’s poor payment record’, it said.

ENEO’s debt stood at $16m, or $9m net to Gaz du Cameroun, at the end of June.

Gaz du Cameroun served a default notice on ENEO on 2 June that included a 30-day remedy period.

‘As we have reached the expiry of this remedy period, Gaz du Cameroun has no alternative but to terminate the gas supply agreement with immediate effect,’ Victoria Oil & Gas said.

‘The company will now rigorously pursue this unpaid debt via the legal channels available to it, including a penalty payment of three months’ fees as a result of termination as per the signed term sheet.’

Source: Sharesmagazine

MTN has appointed new CEOs for two of its West African operations, MTN Cameroon and MTN Benin. Stephen Blewett, the current CEO of MTN Benin, will take the helm at MTN Cameroon on 1 August 2020 when Uche Ofodile, the current CEO of MTN Liberia, will become the CEO of MTN Benin.

“I would like to congratulate Stephen and Uche on their appointments,” says MTN Group president and CEO, Rob Shuter. “Both are renowned for harnessing the power of people to move businesses forward. This is evident in the significant improvements in employee engagement, as well as overall performance, at MTN’s operations in Benin and Liberia in the past few years.”

Karl Toriola, VP for MTN’s West and Central Africa region, thanked Stephen and Uche for their commitment and contribution: “Under Stephen’s leadership, MTN Benin recorded double-digit revenue growth for three years running. Uche leaves a business with double-digit year-on-year revenue growth, enjoying a nine-point market share improvement against its competitor.”

Stephen has led MTN Benin, an operation of 5,5 million subscribers, for five years. He replaces Hendrik Kasteel, who left the group in March. Since then, MTN Cameroon CFO Ebenezer Bodylawson has been acting CEO, steering the operation of more than 10 million subscribers.

Source: itnewsafrica

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) on Monday approved a EUR 88 million loan to Cameroon as direct budget support to finance the country’s COVID-19 crisis response.

The loan, to the country’s COVID-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Programme (PABRC), falls under the framework of the Bank’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF) of up to $10 billion, the institution’s main channel to cushion African countries from the economic and health impacts of the crisis.

In Cameroon, the pandemic has revealed the structural weaknesses of the country’s health system and economy, particularly the limited human and financial resources allocated to the health sector.

The PABRC’s goal is to check the spread of the coronavirus, to save lives and to mitigate its adverse socio-economic effects on the Central African country, particularly on households and businesses. The programme also involves longer-term actions to build the resilience of the economy as a basis for recovery.

It will support the implementation of a health response plan to improve testing and ensure early detection and rapid management of the virus, thus reducing case fatality and improving the recovery rate. It will also support the most vulnerable in society by paying family allowances to staff of companies unable to pay social security contributions as well as distributing health kits. 

“Women play a key role in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 as wives, mothers, caregivers and community resource persons. The social protection and economic resilience actions under this support will particularly target women and the households and businesses headed by them,” Bank Acting Director General and Country Manager for Cameroon, Solomane Kone said.

Measures to sustain economic activity and safeguard employment will include value-added tax (VAT) credits to restore the cash position of enterprises as well as procuring inputs to support strategic agricultural value chains including poultry, fish, seeds and cereals. It will also support key small and medium-sized enterprises in the agribusiness, health and education sectors.

This operation complements the Bank’s $13 million special emergency project for Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa(CEMAC) member countries and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which was approved earlier this month.

COVID-19 has broken out at a time when the Cameroonian economy, the largest and most diversified in the Central Africa, is recovering from the 2014 shock caused by a sharp fall in the world prices of the country’s main export products ­– oil, cocoa and timber. Without support, the spread of COVID-19 in Cameroon could compromise the reform drive and jeopardise the progress made in recent years.

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Cameroon was identified on 6 March 2020. By 22 June, the Central African country had more than 12,041 confirmed cases, including 308  deaths and 7,740  recoveries. The Centre (Yaoundé) and Littoral (Douala) Regions have the highest number of cases, representing about 55.8% and 32.2% of the total, respectively.

Source: APO Group

Cameroon has rolled out the Cameroon Customs Information System (CAMCIS), a fully-automated electronic customs clearance system to reduce face-to-face engagement amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

CAMCIS was built by Korean engineers and is the result of a 12-year-old public-private partnership said Edwin Fongod Nuvaga, Director General of Customs.

The system is modelled on UNI-PASS, used by the Korea Customs Service, and designed to handle large volumes of data, fully automate processes and procedures as part of a paperless system.

According to customs officials CAMCIS replaces the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA ++) which has been in use in Cameroon since 2007.

Speaking at the recent launch of CAMCIS, Louis Paul Motaze, Cameroon’s Minister of Finance said the new system will significantly improve the business environment and spur profitability in the private sector by saving time and money.

The Minister highlighted the system’s operational speed, and said it will simplify import and export procedures and offer more security in the collection of customs revenue.

Customs duties and taxes are a key source of income for the government and in 2019 accounted for 14.3%.

“It is estimated that with CAMCIS, we would save a maximum number of days for our operations. Also, it will be possible to carry out customs clearance operations within one day after the validation of papers,” reads a statement issued by Cameroon Customs.

Séraphin Deffo Deffo, Chief Information Officer of CAMCIS, said the new system will guarantee traceability of all transaction, prevent fraud and corruption, enhance proper control of goods on transit, fasten procurement of customs duties and taxes, amongst others.

CAMCIS can be accessed and operated remotely using any digital device with a browser and an internet connection. It has three portals accessible to customs administration, economic operators and the general public.

Source: itweb.Africa

As expected, Cameroon’s Head of State, Paul Biya, signed an ordinance amending the 2020 Finance Law on June 3, 2020. This supplementary budget act reduced the initial budget by 11% or XAF542.7 billion in absolute terms. 

According to the Presidential ordinance of June 3, 2020, which will be submitted to and probably adopted by Parliament during the ordinary session which opens on 10 June, the State’s 2020 budget falls from XAF4,951.7 billion to XAF4,409 billion.

Apart from this drastic reduction of the previous budget, the other major fact of this amended budget -following the coronavirus pandemic that is raging throughout the world- is the creation of a special trust fund called “Fonds spécial de solidarité nationale pour la lutte contre le coronavirus et ses répercussions économiques et sociales” (Special National Solidarity Fund for the fight against the coronavirus and its economic and social repercussions).

According to official sources, this Fund, financed by contributions from development partners as well as individuals and companies, will be endowed with CFAF180 billion for the second half of 2020.

In addition to taking care of Covid-19 patients and strengthening the health system (CFAF 58.7 billion), strengthening research and local production of pharmaceutical products (CFAF 8.1 billion), this Fund will dedicate CFAF 98.7 billion to economic and financial resilience actions, and CFAF 14.5 billion to social resilience.

According to internal sources at the Ministry of Finance, the last two budgeted funds mentioned above relate to the various support measures already taken or to be taken by the government to support Cameroonian enterprises and households in the face of the ravages caused by the pandemic.

The third major fact in the amended budget of June 3, 2020, is that all the initial allocations of public administrations have been revised downwards. The administrations concerned include the Presidency of the Republic, whose envelope has been cut by about CFAF15 billion, according to a credible source. Only three institutions escaped these budget cuts. They are the National Assembly, the Senate, and Elections Cameroon, the body in charge of organizing elections. The latter is actively preparing the first regional elections in the history of Cameroon. These elections are scheduled for October 2020.

Culled from Business in Cameroon