The World Bank approved on November 30, 2021 a credit from the International Development Association (IDA)* in the amount of $200 million to support Cameroon’s agricultural production in the Valley of Logone, located in the Far North region and being part of the Lake Chad basin.

The project, Valorization of Investments in the Valley of the Logone (VIVA Logone), seeks specifically to (i) support regional water security and governance of the water resources, mainly through rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage infrastructure and support to water users’ associations, (ii) promote agriculture and agribusiness production, and (iii) implement a transformational plan of SEMRY (Société d’expansion et de modernisation de la riziculture de Yagoua) and strengthen public services.

The project will benefit different groups of poor people: poor farmers, particularly women, by improving their ability to increase irrigation productivity and a likely doubling of cropping intensity; and through infrastructure investments and support for intensifying production, improved irrigation and drainage. In addition, improved flood management, including the early warning system in 300 km, would benefit the residents of the Logone Valley, both in Cameroon and Chad.

“A series of factors, ranging from ecological fragility to violence-related insecurity, have forced Cameroon’s agricultural sector to low productivity and low-production subsistence agriculture, particularly in the Far North. Irrigation is fundamental to ensure food security and contribute to reducing the risk of conflicts in this Sudano-Sahelian agroecological zone which is the most ecologically fragile and the most vulnerable to climatic shocks. The development of the Logone Valley plays an important role in the resilience of vulnerable communities, livelihoods and ecosystems, including their ability to better cope and adapt to the impact of climatic shocks” said Abdoulaye Seck, World Bank Country Director for Cameroon.

The project will have three main components: the first one will improve the infrastructure and water management; the second will promote production and support agriculture services and the third one will support the sector development and the implementation of the project.

Source: Devdiscourse

Currently, Cameroon’s road network is 121,873.93 kilometers long. However, only 48.86% of that network is in a good or average condition. As for the remaining 51.14%, it is in bad condition, Minister of Public Works Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi explained on December 1, 2021, while defending the 2022 budget of his ministerial department before the parliament.

According to the official, the poor condition of those roads is due to a lack of maintenance fundings. Indeed, he explained, over the past ten years, Cameroon’s road network has increased by 121%, from 55 000 km in 2010, to 121,873.93 km in 2021. But the budget dedicated to its maintenance has not grown proportionally.

To address the situation, the government intends to not only concede the road maintenance but also implement a new strategy aimed at ensuring the sustainability of dirt roads that constitute well over 93% of the national road network, he explained.

The new strategy was developed because the Ministry of Public Works noticed that the maintenance solutions implemented so far have limitations. On June 1-3, 2021, a workshop was organized in Yaoundé to discuss the new strategy, we learn.

Based on new maintenance methods and the use of innovative products, the strategy is aimed at “improving the load-bearing capacity of the unconsolidated materials that usually form the surface of those roads. It is also aimed at reducing the impacts f traffic on them by controlling and monitoring the circulation of heavy vehicles as well as controlling and limiting the impacts of climatic conditions…”

Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi stresses that the implementation of the new strategy will have to be supported with governance measures such as improved rigor in the execution of the works in strict compliance with agreed terms and the multiplication of monitoring and emergency intervention networks.

According to the Ministry of Public Works, the feedback collected one year after implementing this strategy will serve as guidelines for the elaboration of a technical guide for the maintenance of dirt roads taking into account ecological and technical specificities, the problems encountered, the optimal solutions, and the implementation protocol.

Ultimately, in addition to optimizing the maintenance of dirt roads, the strategy is expected t positively impact Cameroonians whose “living standard (…) is affected by the services they receive through those dirt roads.”

Source: Business in Cameroon

The anglophone crisis dragged growth down by  0.8 and 0.3 points of GDP respectively in 2019 and 2020 in Cameroon. This represents a cumulated loss in GDP estimated at XAF421.3 billion between 2017 and 2020.

The figures were presented on November 23, 2021, by Paul Tasong, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy Planning and Regional Development, while presenting the presidential plan for the reconstruction of the anglophone regions.

For Paul Tasong, the poor performance was due to decline in business in several sectors, the most affected being the agricultural sector.

For instance, the paddy rice segment recorded an average of 14.5% drop in activities yearly between 2017 and 2019 before rising by about 10% in 2020. Meanwhile, crude palm oil production dropped by about 90% over the period, going from 37,400 tons in 2016 to about  4 300 tons in 2019. “In 2020, however, there was a reverse in the downtrend with a 131% rise in the production of palm oil to reach  9 900 tons,” Paul Tasong explained.

Regarding the banana sector, production dropped from  125,019 tons in 2016 to 16,897 tons in 2019 in the South West because state firm Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) stopped operations in 2018.

“However, production recovered in 2020 to 21,132 tons. In the first half of 2021, the company produced nearly 16,272 tons of bananas,” the delegated Minister added. 

As far as consumer products are concerned, fish supplies dipped significantly in the regions in 2019 before stabilizing in 2020 that saw a 14.6% rise in the Northwest and 25.3% in the Southwest,  we learn.

Industry

The poor performance of manufacturing industries in the anglophone regions caused a decline in medium-voltage energy consumption in the order of 19.5%, 6%, and 25%, respectively in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The resumption in activities recorded in the manufacturing industries 2020 resulted in a 7% rise in the consumption of that type of energy, Paul Tasong continued.

He further explained that the cocoa and tourism sectors were impacted as well. Also, due to the crisis,  a significant number of public projects worth XAF16.4 billion were not executed during the 2017-2019 period despite the increase in budgets allocated. In that context, the public investment budget implementation rate remained relatively low in the North-West and South-West regions (the estimated average is  64.4% and 68.2 respectively) between 2017 and 2019.  In 2020, that rate improved notably to 83.7% in the North-west and  89.9% in the South-west.

According to the GICAM, the largest employers’ grouping in Cameroon, from 2016 to date, companies have lost an estimated XAF800 billion.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari launched the country’s new digital eNaira currency on Monday as Africa’s largest economy looked to tap into the growing popularity of virtual money and cryptocurrencies.

With the eNaira, Nigeria becomes the first in sub-Saharan Africa to fully launch a digital currency and joins China and a few other countries using or piloting central bank-regulated electronic tender.

“We have become the first country in Africa and one of the first in the world to introduce a digital currency to our citizens,” Buhari said at the official launch.

Nigeria has seen booming interest in cryptocurrencies as people look for ways to avoid the weakening naira currency and combat high costs of living and unemployment in Africa’s most populous country.

Central bank-backed digital currencies or CBDCs and cryptocurrencies are both virtual money though the CBDCs are legal tender regulated by central banks while cryptos are out of government control.

Five countries have already launched CBDCs, with another 14 including Sweden and South Korea in the pilot stage, according to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracking project.

In West Africa, Ghana is also looking to launch its own CBDC soon.

Nigeria’s central bank earlier this year sought to control the use of cryptocurrencies by ordering banks to close accounts that were involved in such transactions.

‘Increasing the tax base’

But in spite of the central bank ban, many Nigerians still skirt traditional sectors to use cryptocurrency for overseas transactions.

Experts say digital currencies can potentially reduce transaction costs and ease cross border transfers while also expanding financial inclusion as people with no banking access can use their mobile phones.

“The use of CBDCs can help move many more people and businesses from the informal into the formal sector, thereby increasing the tax base of the country,” Buhari said.

The new eNaira will be issued as legal tender like the current naira currency and will operate on the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain. It will also follow the official exchange rate.

Customers will be able to download the eNaira app and fund their mobile wallets using their bank accounts, according to the central bank.

Nigeria’s central bank says it will adapt the system after the launch to encourage use by people with no banking access, especially in rural areas.

The eNaira launch comes as Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, is tackling the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and the sharp drop in global crude prices.

Slipping into its second recession in five years after the start of the pandemic, Nigeria’s economy has bounced back to growth. But inflation, especially cost of food, remains stubbornly high and the naira weak against the dollar.

Source: AFP

Cameroon is taking steps to address a housing shortage by constructing and selling 10,000 affordable homes, the country’s Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Celestine Ketcha Courtes has said.

Courtes said, the move, which has been in progress, focuses on the construction of homes for sale to individuals and non-profit organizations.

“The government and her partners will work harder and faster to complete thousands of other apartments to give out to those in need. Our aim is to provide decent and modern homes to Cameroonians,” Courtes said in the capital Yaounde on Monday during an official ceremony to mark the World Habitat Day.

Demand for housing soared early in the COVID-19 pandemic as Cameroonians sought more spacious accommodations for home offices and home schooling, but a shortage of homes for sale and supply chain bottlenecks have driven housing prices sharply higher in the Central African nation, according to officials.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroon’s economy is predicted to grow by 4.4 percent next year while economic activity this year will rebound to 3.4 percent compared with 0.7 percent in 2020, according to the country’s President Paul Biya.

In 2022, based on the assumption that the pandemic will be brought under control and economies will open up, coupled with the fallout from the stimulus measures, Cameroon’s economy is projected to grow by 4.4 percent, with 4.7 percent for the non-oil sector and -1.8 percent for the oil sector. Inflation is expected to be contained at 2 percent, below the community threshold of 3 percent, Biya said in a document addressed to government officials.

The document also outlined the country’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2022, providing insight into top priorities for the Central African nation.

The post COVID-19 recovery plan aims to ensure the structural transformation of Cameroon’s economy with particular emphasis on the continuation of the import-substitution policy required to strengthen the resilience of the economy, Biya said in the document that was made public on Tuesday.

“Specifically, special emphasis will be placed on finalization and commissioning of major first-generation projects, strengthening of social cohesion and decentralization, reconstruction of crisis-affected regions, particularly the Northwest, Southwest and Far North, organization of the Africa Cup of Nations and continued implementation of Universal Health Coverage,” Biya said.

The fight against security threats with a view to sustainably overcoming the pertinent challenges facing the country will be strengthened, according to the document.

Source: Xinhuanet

Businesswoman Rebecca Enonchong was arrested yesterday in Douala following an order from a French Cameroun judge at the Court of First Instance in Bonanjo.

The Littoral judiciary is yet to issue a statement detailing the reasons for her arrest. However, people in the know have hinted Cameroon Concord News Douala city reporter that the arrest is part of an ongoing affair in the Enonchong family.

The Enonchong family has also not yet expressed themselves on the subject.

Founder of AppsTech, a company specialize in business management software in more than 40 countries around the world and president of ActivSpaces, one of the main start-up incubators in Cameroon, Rebecca Enonchong is one of the prides of Cameroon internationally.

In 2020, the 53-year-old was named one of the 50 most influential women in Africa by Jeune Afrique magazine.

She is also known for her commitment to the fight against inequality and bad governance. She does not fail, when the opportunity arises, to criticize the management of affairs by the Cameroonian government. Her political opinions have not earned her friends within the Biya governing apparatus.

By Fon Lawrence with files

Deprived of everything under the Franklin Ngoni Njie administration, CDC-Delmonte workers who had been scraping on FCFA 500 FRS per day are now left with nothing. General Manager Ngoni Njie and his Musonge gang have not raised any alarm ever since the war in Southern Cameroons started four years ago as the workers, abandoned in places like Tiko, Mautu, Mondoni, Ekona and Muyuka slid silently into catastrophe.

“They have become like beggars,” said Cameroon Concord News Fako Bureau Chief. CDC-Delmonte workers have been unable to properly feed themselves or their families and many are being forced out of their homes by landlords.

Many of the workers have their tiny arms immobilized by malnutrition, some have kids suffering from tuberculosis and beneath their poorly equipped “Carabout” houses, the dirt floor is slowly being eaten away by the heavy rains in places like Tiko.

The workers are dying like flies and the toll has continued to climb since.

In 2021, at least 37 CDC-Delmonte workers have died across Fako according to Cameroon Concord News sources in the Southern West region.

More than 3000 workers have been left in abject poverty at CDC-Delmonte estates, spread across Southern Cameroons.

The so-called Dion Ngute government is reportedly helpless and lacks the resources to launch any emergency relief program even though conditions remain grim.  The CDC-Delmonte workers are dying either from malnutrition or inadequate medical care.

Dozens of men have left their families to find work in French Cameroun, but women and children have remained in houses on the estate controlled by Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Biya Francophone regime has done nothing to penalize CDC and Delmonte for abandoning their workers and the workers are dying in a system closer to the 19th century than the 21st.

Established by the Germans after the 1884 Berlin Conference, the CDC plantations now being auctioned to French businessmen by the Francophone political leaders in Yaoundé are among the few examples of large-scale organized agriculture in Southern Cameroons

There are several plantations in the two Cameroons but those in Southern Cameroons are widely seen as having the worst labour conditions. Most of the workers live below the U.N.’s $2 a-day threshold for extreme poverty.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai