Business

22, September 2016

Yaounde: Inter-ministerial committee evaluating French Cameroun railway infrastructures ⁰

Members of the Inter-ministerial committee on railway infrastructure have met to evaluate the first five year plan to renew part of the French Cameroon’s railways secure level crossing and acquire new wagons and Locomotives. During the 25th session, chaired by the Minister of Transport, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o, it was revealed that 4 cranes and 8 scanners have been acquired and are already in use in Douala, Yaounde, Belabo, and Ngaoundere. Nothing was mentioned about the Kumba-Mbanga lines or prospects of linking the North West region to the West with rails.

It was also disclosed that 150km of railway between Batchenga and Sa’a, have been renovated. The 5 year plan also targets the rehabilitation of the Yaounde North, Yaounde South and Douala entry ways. These projects to modernize French speaking Cameroon’s railways will enable the sector play a crucial role during the upcoming major international sports events, the 2016 and 2019 Africa cup of Nations.

The International Committee on Railway Infrastructure has as mission to follow-up investment programs renovations and development of railway infrastructure.

CRTV

22, September 2016

Yaounde: Israeli ambassador says Small and Medium Size Enterprise is one of his nation’s main exports ⁰

The Ambassador of Israel to Cameroon Ran Gidor, has emphasized the need to enhance Cameroon’s Small and Medium Size Enterprises. Ambassador Gidor raised the concern during an audience with the Minister of Small and Medium Size Enterprises, Lazare Etoundi Ngoua that held on September the 20^th 2016.

The Israeli strongman in Yaounde said the idea of Small and Medium Size enterprise has been one of Israel’s main exports. He further observed that Small and Medium Size Enterprise is the backbone of the Israeli Economy since the country is small and without any multinational firm.

Ran Gidor promised to follow-up on Cameroonian business incubators to see if they can function like the hi-tech Israeli one. Minister Lazare Etoundi Ngoua after very intensive and productive discussions, validated the Ambassador’s ideas shared on issues concerning the Small and Medium Enterprise.

CRTV

21, September 2016

Cameroon: CPDM government and electricity company sign protocol agreement ⁰

A protocol agreement has been signed between the Cameroon government and the electricity company ENEO for the transfer of surplus capacity from their optical fiber. The energy to be transferred to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications is intended to allow the Ministry upgrade its national broad band.

According to the MINPOSTEL boss, who signed for the government of Cameroon, the protocol will help the ministry meet its electronic communication needs and modernize information and control systems in the country.

The Director General of ENEO, Nana Kontchou who signed for the electricity company said the agreement will ensure the quality at a digital age. Experts estimated the surplus from ENEO worth 986 strands of optic fibre cables, of this, 812 kms is due to be transferred to other companies.

The agreement signed therefore stipulates that ENEO will transfer 78 strands of the optical fibre to MINPOSTEL to improve power transmission grid. If this is effective the digital economy will be boosted.

CRTV

16, September 2016

Commercial Bank-Cameroon: Business as usual ⁰

The atmosphere at the headquarters of the Commercial Bank-Cameroon is reportedly calm, serene and busy. Attention was drawn to the renowned financial establishment following an announcement that the mandate accorded the provisional administrators had come to an end.

The nation’s national daily, Cameroon Tribune revealed that customers were withdrawing their desired amounts or saving without any stress. Some who were gunning for school loans had them on time. Rumour earlier circulated that with the end of the mandate of the Provisional Administrators mindful of the crisis that rocked the bank some years ago, services were going to be affected or weakened.

Some customers recently noted that the fervency of services has signaled that the bank stands a better chance of attracting more potential clients. Payment and savings counters, as well as the automated teller machines have been busy. Affiliated services such as money transfer via Western Union are all impressively patronized.

Cameroon Tribune

16, September 2016

Money transfers from the diaspora to Cameroon hits 1.2 billion dollars ²

It has been revealed that the amount of money transfers from the diaspora to Cameroon is 1.2 billion dollars or nearly 585 billion FCFA. The figures were released by the British company, World Remit, considered the world leader in digital money transfer. Statistically speaking, this means that the diaspora contributed 33% in the Public Investment Budget (PIB) of Cameroon in 2016.

Some financial experts have opined that the figure also an equivalence of over 60% of the necessary funding needed for the implementation of the so called Biya emergency plan or nearly 120% of the funding sought for the construction of the Nachtigal dam.

World Remit also reported that money transfers from the Cameroonian Diaspora have doubled over a two year period. Generally, these funds are used primarily for the basic needs of families back home. World Remit however emphasized that “remittances from abroad play an important role in the economy of Cameroon.”

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN

13, September 2016

Cameroon business tycoon Andre Fotso to be laid to rest on Saturday ⁰

The remains of the Cameroonian tycoon and President of GICAM Andre Fotso will be laid to rest in his native Banjoun in the West Region on Saturday 17th September 2016.

He died at the age of 69 on the 2nd of August 2016 in Paris after a protracted illness. Andre Fotso will be remembered as a successful Cameroonian businessman that provided direct employment to more than 800 Cameroonians. After his sojourn as a student of the Lyon II University in France in 1977 to 1983, where he studied Management Science, the late Andre Fotso came back to Cameroon and in 1991, started a business enterprise.

In 1993 he set up the first Cameroon Gas company and in 2002 became a member of GICAM. His efforts to enlarge the Cameroon Business landscape earned him the post of a vice President of GICAM in 2008, after having contributed to establish the Ecobank group in Cameroon in 2003.

In May 2010, the organization registered some remarkable changes thanks to some innovations made by the deceased. In July 2010 he laid the ground work for the construction of the Kribi deep sea port, and some road infrastructural projects in September that same year.

CRTV

11, September 2016

US Republicans preventing further return of Iranian money held since 1979 ⁰

US Republicans are pushing new bills through Congress to prevent further return of Iranian money held since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Those measures are in response to President Barack Obama’s cash payments to Iran this year following a nuclear accord which requires Washington to lift its sanctions on Tehran.

Iran reportedly received $400 million first in January and another $1.3 billion less than two months later. The total sum of $1.7 billion was related to an arms deal that Iran signed before 1979 but Washington was refusing to give back.

Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were reportedly flown into Iran in an unmarked cargo plane to cover the first $400 million, while the second payoff was likely made in cash since the US has no banking relationship with Tehran.

Republican lawmakers have now fielded new bills prohibiting any similar payments from the US, the country’s media reports say. A bill introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce to ban future payments to Iran has reportedly attracted 36 co-sponsors and got a date squeezed into the body’s calendar for a vote.

In the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio has introduced a similar measure which has attracted 20 co-sponsors in just three days, reports said.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio gives a thumbs up to members of Congress. (Photo by Getty Images)

In a statement, Rubio hit out at Obama’s “misguided policies,” accusing him of attempting “to appease our enemy with pallets of cash secretly delivered on an unmarked cargo plane.” The senator accused Iran of cheating on the nuclear deal even though the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) once again confirmed Tehran’s commitment to the accord in a report on Thursday.

Rubio’s bill is reportedly competing with another being pushed by Sen. Bob Corker, the GOP chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Corker’s bill expands sanctions on Tehran over its ballistic missile program as well as Iran’s support for resistance groups such as Hezbollah. It also requires new sanctions for the transfer of conventional weapons to and from Iran, among other penalties.

According to weekly magazine the Washington Examiner, lawmakers know there’s no chance that Obama will sign the bills into law in the waning days of his time in office but they want to force Democrats up for election in conservative states to take a tough vote on the measure.

The $1.7 billion returned to Iran constitutes a fraction of tens of billions of dollars of the Iranian assets which the US has blocked since the Islamic Revolution. With the nuclear accord reached in February, US courts have scrambled through several cases, allowing American families to claim Iranian assets as compensation for a number of attacks which Tehran says have nothing to do with the country.

In April, the US Supreme Court ruled that Iran’s $2 billion of assets held in an American bank be turned over to families of those killed in a 1983 bombing in Beirut and other attacks. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced the move as “highway robbery” and pledged that Iran would retrieve the sum anyway.

Secretary of State John Kerry (L) speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (R) in Vienna, July 14, 2015. (Photo by Reuters)

Top Iranian authorities have also rebuked the US for “deception” on the nuclear accord and failing to fulfill its commitments. While Washington has to lift sanctions on Tehran under the accord, it has imposed even more penalties under numerous pretexts.

Last month, Deputy Petroleum Minister for trade and international affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia said the US was terrorizing the Europeans into shunning business with Iran despite the lifting of sanctions.

Presstv

1, September 2016

Douala: Former Camair-Co GM prevented from traveling out of the country ⁰

The former general manager of Camair-Co, the national airline, Jean Paul Sandjo Nana has been told not to travel out of the country. Paul Sandjo was about to board a Royal Air Morocco plane when he was asked to hand over his passport.

Mr. Nana Sandjo was served the exit ban that prevents him from traveling abroad which was issued against him since August 24, 2016 on the recommendation of the Higher State Control (CONSUPE).

Nana Sandjo was asked to return home where he awaits further proceedings in an investigation that will include the almighty Edouard Akame Mfoumou, former Board Chairman of Camair-Co and onetime minister of finance.

By Sama Ernest

31, August 2016

Cameroon: Finance Minister happy with debt situation and a political budget ⁰

Cameroon at the end of July this year had a debt situation of 4,754 billion FCFA, representing 27.3 per cent Gross Domestic Product, far below the 70 per cent ceiling set by the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, sub-region. This satisfactory situation will be maintained in the long-run if stakeholders continue to upgrade skills on mobilizing resources for the State properly and in a more disciplined manner.

The Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, however says there is need to remain cautious when analyzing the figures, given the implementation of projects for transforming the country into a middle income economy by 2035 as planned by the Head of State. The Minister made the disclosure in Yaounde yesterday August 30, at a ceremony to present the texts, missions and working procedures of the National Committee in charge of Public Debt, (NCPD). It was set up in 2008 by the Prime Minister to coordinate and follow-up the implementation of the national public indebtedness and public debt management policy with focus on developing objectives for State financial resources.

The Minister, who is also NCPD Chairperson, said government was committed to righting the wrongs of the past with the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC) of the early 2000 that led to the freezing of the country’s debts by partners. Making sure that the country was on the right path to “borrowing cautiously and spending wisely,” with focus on enabling future generations to repay debts normally, was primordial, Finance Minister stated. “We have to be careful in the conception, evaluation and mobilisation of resources to develop the country”, he said, stressing that NCPD members must know the position of the country’s debt policy where; “If we are not watchful enough while looking for resources to finance our development projects, we may end up in a situation where sustainability is not ensured.” Public debt concerns countries all over the world because of the risks involved. The one-day dialogue was part of efforts to maintain Cameroon’s possibility of mobilizing resources for development. Cameroon therefore needs to maintain the quality of its signature in the financial market as well as with its donors so as to mobilize enough resources for development.

Cameroon Tribune

25, August 2016

Biya appoints new general manager for the Port of Douala ⁰

Paul Biya has signed a decree appointing Ngo’o Cyrus as Managing Director of the Port of Douala. The Biya decree was made public on August 24, 2016, some few hours before the Cameroonian dictator left for an unknown destination in Europe.

Cameroon Concord News understands Ngo’o Cyrus was presented and immediately installed on the same Wednesday evening during a session of the Board of the Port of Douala which held in the economic capital under the direct supervision of the Minister of Transport, Alain Edgar Mebe Ngo’o.

Ngo’o Cyrus replaces Emmanuel Etoundi Oyono who died in Paris in France last month of an illness. Before his appointment, he was responsible for missions at the Prime Minister Office in Yaoundé. To be sure, he was appointed to the Prime Minister Office only on July the 4^th 2016. So this is the second presidential decree in the space of a month enjoyed by Mr Ngo’o Cyrus.

Sama Ernest with files from Cameroon-info.net