Business

22, December 2016

Finance Minister in hot waters over a 24 billion FCFA payments made to a CPDM tycoon ⁰

The Minister of Finance has been accused of paralyzing public finance as many service providers are unable to reclaim their funds due to a fictitious financial slump within his department. Information has also filtered that Cameroon is broke and the state is no longer able to meet some of its commitments.

However,Cameroon Concord News gathered recently that the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey approved the payment of 24 billion FCFA to the billionaire Baba Danpullo who reportedly is a President Biya acolyte. The reasons for this payment have not yet been clarified and made public. But what we do know is that the payments to the CPDM tycoon, Baba Danpullo were made spontaneously while other invoices validated for payments to some economic operators and other service providers have been tripping for several months at the premises of the ministry.

The CPDM Francophone pattern of governance provides for payments to some people at the detriment of several others. The Minister had reportedly told some other businessmen and women that the war on Boko Haram had emptied state coffers but was quick to dish-out 24 billion CFA to Baba Danpullo. Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey comes from a family whose fortunes have been linked to the Biya administration for more than 40 years. His father was a close confidante of Biya under Ahidjo.

By Rita Akana

18, December 2016

Bamenda: Calm returns to markets after “hectic” week ⁰

Life is gradually returning to normalcy in Bamenda, North West Region after last week’s violent strike action. Taxis are busy transporting passengers while bike riders who were at the center of the strike have resumed work. Shops have been reopened and markets are all noisy once again.

Areas worst hit by the strike such as City Chemist, Hospital Round About and Mobile Nkwen, are all booming with activities. Bus conductors could be heard scrambling for customers who ply different destinations such as Bali, Nkwen, Mbengwi among others. In most joints in Bamenda, Security forces are stationed to preempt any uprising again. Policemen from the mobile intervention unit are perceived putting on their war shield, armed right at the level of their teeth.

At the Food market, traders are present but buyers are few, most are still scared to go out of their homes, talk less of going to a gathering like the market. The traders hold that most people bought their food and stored in homes while others are still to recover from the shock and damages.

But as the town of Bamenda is back to life, Babila John, a roadside trader at City Chemist says it is just temporal, he suspects the strike might be more intensive by January. Traders had said the fact that they are back in markets does not mean they have called off the strike, according to Unionists, the strike shall continue after the festive period.

Culled from Cameroun info.net

2, December 2016

US President-elect says American corporations that relocate abroad will be punished ⁰

US President-elect Donald Trump has said American corporations that relocate abroad will be punished under his administration. Trump made the remarks on Thursday in Indianapolis, the capital of the state of Indiana, as he announced an agreement with air conditioning manufacturer Carrier to keep jobs in the United States.

“Companies are not going to leave the United States any more without consequences. Not going to happen,” Trump told workers at the Carrier plant. “They can leave from state to state, and negotiate deals with different states, but leaving the country will be very, very difficult,” he added. During his election campaign, Trump has spoken against corporations which are leaving the United States for cheaper workforce abroad in order to earn more profit, leaving many Americans jobless.

He has vowed to bring jobs back to the United States and punish those companies which refuse to do so by imposing major tariffs on their products. Trump particularly singled out Carrier, a brand of United Technologies Corporation, saying he had been trying to convince the firm not to shift thousands of jobs to neighboring Mexico.

The Republican billionaire had warned that his administration would slap tariffs on Carrier products as they were exported back to the United States. “But I called Greg (Hayes, UTC’s chairman) and I said it’s really important, we have to do something because you have a lot of people leaving and you have to understand we can’t allow this to happen anymore with our country,” Trump said as he recalled an earlier discussion with the corporation ‘s top executive.

The company said in a statement that under the deal, negotiated by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Indian state offered Carrier $7 million in incentives over a decade, “contingent upon factors including employment, job retention and capital investment.” Pence, the outgoing Indiana governor, said the agreement will keep about 1,100 jobs in the state. “This is a great day for Indiana and it’s a great day for working people all across the United States of America.”

Trump’s campaign had been hit with so many controversies since its inception in early 2015. But the real estate tycoon still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, in the November 8 election by promising to make American economy better and providing jobs to the jobless.

Presstv

1, December 2016

World Bank Operations Manager says Cameroon’s economy is strong and promising ⁰

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril has granted audience to the Operations Manager for the World Bank in Cameroon, Elisabeth Huybens today, Thursday the 1^st of December 2016.

Elisabeth Huybens was at the National Assembly to discuss the state of cooperation between Cameroon and the World Bank. During her meeting with Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, the Operations Manager for the World Bank in Cameroon hailed the country’s economic performance.

She described the economy as strong and promising in spite of the falling prices of oil and other external shocks on the international market. Belgian born Elisabeth Huybens was appointed the Operations Manager for the World Bank in Cameroon, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe since July 2015.

30, November 2016

Yaounde hosting African coffee symposium ⁰

Delegates from the 25 member states of the Inter-African Coffee Organization are meeting in Yaoundé in the fourth African Coffee Symposium. During the five-day conclave which opened on 29th November 2016, the delegates will exchange notes and share experiences on how the African coffee industry could emerge.

The symposium is holding under the theme, “Inclusive Value Chain Transformation in the African Coffee Industry”. In Cameroon, coffee is grown extensively with robusta coffee more prevalent in the coastal areas and arabica coffee widespread in the western highlands.

In September 2014, the Government of Cameroon validated and launched a new plan to revive the coffee sector, hoping to boost production and in that same year, Cameroon was ranked the 31st largest producer of coffee in the world. It is worth mentioning that coffee farming in Cameroon dates to 1884, during the German colonial era.

CRTV

26, November 2016

Destroying our Credit Unions is killing our Anglophone economy ⁰

The Cameroon Common Law Lawyers unanimously started the now popular Southern Cameroons strike action due to the coming into place and implementation of the OHADA Uniform Act. The lawyers may have been angered by the complete absence of the English version of the document. However, Cameroon Concord News is now aware that there is more to the OHADA than just its translation.

Our chief economic reporter revealed during our last editorial meeting that the OHADA Uniform Act is a Francophone teleguided policy to stifle the Anglophone economy and by extrapolation, the Anglophone identity. For those who do not know like Minister Atanga Nji Paul, the OHADA has destroyed the original co-operative law.

The CPDM government is now demanding that application forms for loans be stamped duty and tax. This implies that a minimum loan of 50000 FCFA will have a 14000 FCFA tax. This is not realistic. The VAT that the CPDM government is demanding from co-operative credit unions does not take into consideration the corporate law that distinguished category 1 micro-finance from categories 2 and 3.

The Co-operative law does not restrict the organization from having branch offices. With the new OHADA legal apparatus, credit unions are being persecuted for having branch offices throughout the national territory. So, any good thing that has its origin from Anglophone Cameroon is under threat from the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo government. British Southern Cameroons micro finance institutions cannot survive with this kind of judicial system.

The so-called tax laws do not exist in English. The OHADA uniform act on credit unions exists only in French. In a country where more than half of its micro finance and credit union establishments operate in the Anglophone zone, destroying our Credit Unions is tantamount to killing the Anglophone economy.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

26, November 2016

National Assembly: Minister Alamine Ousmane presents same CPDM old stories ⁰

CPDM business has commenced at the National Assembly with Cabinet Ministers defending their budgetary allocations in the Committee on Finance and Budget of the House. The Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, set the ball rolling on November 23, 2016. It was a long night starting with the presentation of the Report on the Nation’s Economic, Social and Financial Situation and Outlook for the 2016 financial year.

Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey, proceeded with the defence of draft budgetary allocations for 18 sovereign institutions like the Presidency of the Republic, Services attached to the Presidency of the Republic, National Assembly, Prime Minister’s Office, Economic and Social Council. The exercise culminated with the Ministry of Finance, whose budgetary allocation is estimated at FCFA 52 billion in 2017 up from FCFA 46.2 billion in 2016.

The Report on the Nation’s Economic, Social and Financial Situation and Outlook notes that the achievement rate of internal budgetary revenues stood at 68.9 per cent by the end of the first nine months of the 2016 budgetary year. Resources mobilized stood at FCFA 2,373.1 billion. Domestic budgetary revenue amounted to FCFA 2,056.3 billion while cumulative budgetary expenditure amounted to FCFA 2,418.41 billion with a 2.4 per cent increase.

Cameroon’s economy remains resilient, with growth strengthened around 6 per cent, holds the macroeconomic and budgetary projections. Growth slowed slightly to 5.3 per cent in 2016 as against 5.8 per cent in 2015 with fingers pointing at the drop in oil production. Growth however, continues to be driven by the non-oil sector with value added projected at 5.7 percent. The strong increase in gas production is expected to fit the holes of the decline in oil production. The inflation rate, the Minister indicated, is not expected to exceed the threshold of 3 percent. He stated that the terms of trade could become favorable again in 2017 after several years of hardship.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

21, November 2016

Cameroon host forum on tourism ⁰

The Cameroon government is taking advantage of the women’s Africa Cup of Nations currently going on in the country to market its poorly developed sector. The Ministry of Tourism and Leisure, organized today Monday, a very popular ceremony in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital. Chaired by the Prime Minister and Head of Government, the event was attended by Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), under the theme “Women, Sport and Tourism: Women’s sporting events and promotion of African destinations “.

Identified in Cameroon as a sector of growth and job creation, tourism, has been set up by the CPDM led government of Cameroon as an important lever for achieving the Sustainable Development Objectives noted Bello Bouba Maïgari, the Minister of Tourism and Leisure.

However, the Cameroon tourism sector is a complete mess and continues to record a sharp decline in the number of tourists in the country since 2013. The situation has become even more pathetic with the emergence of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. It is in an attempt to reverse the trend that the authorities have chosen the pretext of female Africa Cup of Nations to promote tourism in a country that avails itself of a rich cultural diversity.

By Rita Akana

21, November 2016

CPDM government presents recessionary budget to parliament ⁰

The government has presented a draft budget for the 2017 fiscal year. It is 4,373.8 billion FCFA. The bill was tabled at the National Assembly today the 21^st of November 2016 during a plenary sitting of the House which was chaired by the Senior Deputy Speaker of the, Hilarion Eton.

The 2017 draft budget recorded an increase of over 139.1 billion FCFA compared to that of 2016. The bill was presented alongside that which authorizes the President of the Republic to ratify the agreement between Canada and the Republic of Cameroon on the promotion and protection of investments.

CRTV

12, November 2016

Yaounde: CPDM government seeking an increase in the 2017 budget ⁰

It has been revealed that the CPM government is seeking an increase in the 2017 budget. According to the draft tabled during this current session devoted to examine the budget which started on Thursday the 10^th of October, the government expects a budget of 4378.8 billion FCFA in 2017.

Cameroon Concord News understands if the budget is adopted by parliament, it will witness an increase of CFAF 139.1 billion compared to the 2016 budget. Our chief economic correspondent noted that it will record a more than 3% increase in relative value. 70% of the Finance Act will be devoted to the operating budget, as in previous years.

By Rita Akana