British private equity firm Actis is investing in a £200m mall and business park in the central African country of Cameroon.

Planned for the city of Douala, the 18,000-sq-m Douala Grand Mall and Business Park will have a Carrefour supermarket, a multiplex cinema, restaurants and shops. A second phase will include a five star hotel and office spaces.

Douala is the commercial capital of Cameroon, with a population of just under 2.5 million. British High Commissioner to Cameroon, Rowan Laxton, laid the foundation stone for the mall on 11 April with Cameroon’s Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana.

According to the High Commission, the project is funded by the British Investment Fund-Actis, and is being carried out with a local real estate developer, Craft Development.

The scheme is expected to create 4,500 local jobs, with construction scheduled for completion by the end of 2019. “This diversification of portfolio in Cameroon (investing beyond power sector) is a remarkable signal that Cameroon is a good business destination for multinationals like Actis,” said Rowan Laxton.

“As the British High Commissioner, I feel encouraged to persuade more UK investors to come.” Spun out of a UK government investment vehicle in 2004, Actis invests in growth markets across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Source: Globalconstructionreview

The International Civil Aviation Organization will inspect the airport of Cameroon’s port city, Douala, to monitor improvements to the facility.

The inspection will follow after the French Development Agency gave the country a loan of 46 million euro ($57 million) in 2015 to rehabilitate runways and modernize the facility to comply with ICAO directives, the airport authority Aeroports du Cameroun said in a statement Wednesday.

The runway repairs were finalized in 2016, while the airport authority is waiting for the approval of the FDA to proceed with works to the terminal building, it said. The ICAO’s inspection of the facility will take place from April 22 to 27, said the airport authority.

Source: Bloomberg.com

Thousands of passengers at four German airports, including the biggest hub Frankfurt, were stranded on Tuesday as ground staff and other public sector workers staged walkouts across the country to increase the pressure in a pay dispute.

Lufthansa said on Monday it was cancelling more than 800 of its planned 1,600 flights on Tuesday and Frankfurt airport operator Fraport has warned of disruption.

As well as Frankfurt, airports in Munich, Cologne and Bremen were hit. The industrial action also affected nurseries, rubbish collection services and swimming pools in several German states.

He said the union would escalate the dispute if employers did not present an offer next week. The third round of talks start on April 15.

(Source: Reuters)

Some Chinese miners taking advantage of the vagueness in the allocation of mining licences and the laxity of the administration in Cameroon are illegally engaging in semi-mechanized artisanal mining leading to destruction of the environment and many deaths.

Sidonie Maboue pulls her hands out of the muddy water to nurse her eight-month-old baby. Sitting on a piece of multicolored fabric, she has filled three bags of gravel with five of her twelve children under a blazing sun.

“These pebbles will be crushed, sifted and if you have the chance, you can find gold but it is difficult,” says the 45-year-old widow who sometimes earns 1500 F CFA, approximately $2.8, after several weeks of digging.

Around her, a hundred people noisily search the yellow metal in a chain work at the Kaye craft quarry in Ngoe Ngoe, a village in the region of East Cameroon. Men dig the earth, crush the gravel and dry the holes with a motor pump. Women collect gravel from muddy waters or prepare food in a makeshift kitchen. The children have fun on the back of their mothers or sleep on pieces of cloth spread on the ground.

In November 2017, Sidonie Maboue nearly lost her life when she went with other villagers to search for gold at a Chinese-owned site near Kaye. “As I ran to carry the earth, I heard the cries of the survivors returning from the site and the young people removed the corpses with shovels,” she says in a low voice. She says she takes these risks to feed her offspring. “If I do not do that, how are we going to live. Since the death of my husband, I am the father and mother of the house.”

Gold and death

That night, nine people who extracted the gravel in this quarry operated by a Chinese company called “Lu and Lang” were submerged by a heap 0f sand about ten meters high. “The Chinese have arrived with law enforcement to drive the villagers out of the mine sites to better exploit our resources,” Yaya Moussa, the village chief of Ngoe Ngoe, says, widening her small black eyes. “So the villagers were forced to come in the night, in the absence of the Chinese, to extract gold and find food for their families. It was during one of these nocturnal outings that the earth fell on them.”

As in Ngoe Ngoe, artisanal mining of gold through the use of manual methods and processes draws crowds in several localities in the Eastern Region. But, the vagueness in the allocation of mining authorizations often creates conflicts between local gold miners and expatriates. According to the Mining Code of 2001, only craftsmen of Cameroonian nationality are entitled to an artisanal exploitation permit. In recent months, this exclusivity is threatened by the presence in the artisanal sites of Chinese operators who practice semi-mechanized artisanal mining through the use of mechanical shovels and loaders, gravel washing machines and chemicals.

Semi-mechanized artisanal mining was conducted for the first time in Cameroon in 2007. In that year, the government had asked the South Korean company C&K Mining to conduct an operation to salvage some 13 tonnes of gold that was likely to be washed away by overflowing water from the Lom Pangar dam. The authorities knew that this decision violated the 2001 mining code, which does not recognize semi-mechanized artisanal mining. At the time, they  used the emergency situation as justification. Later, this act by the government was capitalized upon by some unscrupulous operators who started semi-mechanized artisanal mining of gold.

In December 2016 President Paul Biya promulgated a new mining code that recognizes semi-mechanized artisanal mining. However, this exploitation should be carried under Cameroonian law which states that the shareholding in the companies should have nationals controlling at least 51 per cent. This mining code could have helped to reduce the impact of the confusion around mining permits and the rehabilitation of mine holes. But, the decree implementing the new mining law is not yet signed by the Prime Minister.

When contacted, the regional delegate in charge of mines did not wish to comment. “The minister has launched a mapping campaign with drones to identify mining sites and operators pending the decree implementing the mining code,” said anonymously a director at the Ministry of Mines who said he was not allowed to speak to the press. “All the time we hear of reports of deaths in mining sites and, we do not know who is who.”

Meanwhile, semi-mechanized artisanal mining, although illegal, is already doing damage to Cameroon. In 2017, open and abandoned mining holes by operators of the semi-mechanized artisanal mine including Chinese left 50 people dead in the Ngoura, Betare Oya or Ngoe Ngoe communities in the East, according to NGO Forêts et Developpement Rural (Foder) calculations. This civil society organization reported that 250 mining sites opened between 2012 and 2014 have not been rehabilitated by operators of the semi-mechanized artisanal mine. It therefore, launched an online petition to get the Ministries of Mines and Environmental Protection to intervene.

In a video published by Foder on the dangers of illegal mining, a farmer tells how Chinese gold miners grabbed her land and destroyed her plantation with excavators. “The Chinese entered my field and started mining gold without my permission,” says Philiphine Boh. “The Chinese told me that it is the authorities that sent them and they will give me 70,000 F CFA ($ 131.2) for compensation. I said that this money is insignificant for a field of one hectare that they spoiled. Currently, I have nothing left,” said this mother of five.

Secret deals

The losses are not just human lives. In Ngoe Ngoe, a village of 2,600 inhabitants, Chief Moussa says that during the exploitation of gold the Chinese have destroyed rivers and that many domestic animals have been stuck in abandoned mining holes. Mahamadou Abdoulaye, a 42-year-old registered miner, noted that, “when the Chinese saw a local mining artisan, a Nagbata, discovering gold, they chased everyone out of the site including the artisans who have their card while we also paid, it’s not good,” he complains. “The government must intervene because these Chinese are threatening us.”

The local populations are often surprised by the Chinese presence in the mining sites. They wonder how these expatriate operators were allowed to exploit the gold on their land. The Center for Education, Training and Support to Development Initiatives in Cameroon (Cefaid), an NGO based in Yokadouma in the Eastern Region, reports that some local elites are signing secret deals with Chinese miners.

“An elite is collecting photocopies of ID cards from villagers under the pretext of wanting to bring in companies that will provide water, electricity and jobs to the village,” said Victor Amougou, Cefaid’s coordinator, who knows by heart the tricks these people use. “With ten photocopies, this elite can obtain 40 artisanal logging authorizations equivalent to 40 hectares of land. Later, the elite bring in the Chinese operator with whom he has a contract. The villagers who ate and drank are not aware of the deal and only notice the presence of the Chinese who have in the meantime offered envelopes to the mining authorities and military officials to be able to calmly carry out their activities.”

In addition to corruption, some Chinese in their greed for gold do not care about taxes. After the death of nine people in Ngoe Ngoe, some local NGOs and media reported that the site in which the tragedy occurred was operated by the Chinese company called “Lu and Lang”. Yet neither the reports of the local branch of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (ITEI) nor the tax services know the name of the company responsible. The local official in charge of mines in the East refused to comment on this accident, indicating that this file is being handled by his bosses. “This company is not registered in our books,” says a source at the Ministry of Mines. “No Chinese company has obtained a semi-mechanized artisanal gold mining license in Cameroon,” the source said.

In fact, this fictional company is the initiative of lady Lu, an economic operator of Chinese nationality, who did not wish to comment. After Ngoe Ngoe, she and her employees moved to Colomine, another mining town in eastern Cameroon, where they continued to mine gold at a site guarded by soldiers.

“The mining sector is a mafia,” concludes Victor Amougou. “This crime unfolding before our eyes does not benefit either Cameroon or Cameroonians, perhaps an elite who would have received 5 or 10 million CFA ($ 9,376 to $ 18,755)”.

Source: Ghana Business News

Norwegian shipping firm Golar LNG on Monday said liquefied natural gas (LNG) production had started at its floating LNG production platform in Cameroon, the world’s second working example of the nascent technology.

The trading arm of Russia’s Gazprom has purchased the entire 1.2 million tonne per annum output from Golar’s FLNG platform, the Hilli Episeyo, for eight years.

The deal was agreed in late 2015 between Golar, Gazprom Marketing and Trading, Cameroon’s state-run Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures and Perenco Cameroon. Golar LNG gave no indication of when the Hilli would achieve commercial LNG production or begin exports.

First LNG deliveries were initially targeted for the second half of 2017. The first ever FLNG project came on stream in Malaysia last year, developed by state-run energy giant Petronas, but the project has operated at a fraction of its production capacity.

Source: Reuters

Top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn has announced his resignation following US President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to impose hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Cohn,the director of the National Economic Council, handed in his notice on Tuesday after a little more than a year on the job.

His resignation came after Trump announced plans last week to impose a 25-percent tariff on steel imports and a 10-percent one on aluminum, a move that Cohn had firmly opposed.

“It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people,” the adviser said in a statement about his resignation, refusing to provide further details. “I am grateful to the President for giving me this opportunity and wish him and the Administration great success in the future.”

Trump’s plans to impose the tariffs has reportedly triggered an intense debate within the oval office between Cohn and other advocates of free trade, on one side, and protectionist advisers on the other.

In response to Cohn’s resignation, Trump said in a statement that “Gary has been my chief economic adviser and did a superb job in driving our agenda … He is a rare talent, and I thank him for his dedicated service to the American people.”

The president also said in a tweet that he would make a decision soon on appointing a new chief economic adviser after Cohn’s resignation from the post.

“Will be making a decision soon on the appointment of new Chief Economic Advisor. Many people wanting the job – will choose wisely!” Trump wrote.

Unveiled on Thursday, the plan sparked a flurry of criticism both at home and aboard.

Trump believes the tariffs will safeguard US jobs, but economists say the measures will destroy more jobs than they create and will hurt the very US companies and workers that Trump has said he aims to protect.

Top US energy industry trade groups, which rely on imported steel for drilling equipment, pipelines, liquefied natural gas terminals, and refineries, have issued statements, calling on Trump to scrap the plan.

The decision also drew complaints and counter-threats from the European Commission, Canada, Mexico, Australia and the world’s biggest steel producer, China.

Beijing said it was ready to “take necessary measures” against Washington if it aimed to harm China’s economic interests following the imposed tariffs.

During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly blamed what he called unfair trade deals and allegedly abusive practices by countries such as China and Mexico for the massive US trade deficit and the loss of high-paying American factory jobs.

Trump lashes out at EU trade rules

Also on Tuesday, the US president criticized the European Union’s trade rules as the 28-member bloc threatened to take retaliatory measures against Washington’s new trade tariffs.

“The United States has been taken advantage of by other countries, both friendly and not so friendly, for many, many decades, and we have a trade deficit of $800bn per year, and that’s not going to happen with me,” Trump said at a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven at the White House.

“The European Union has been particularly tough on the United States. They make it almost impossible to do business with them, and yet they send their cars and everything else back into the United States. They can do whatever they like but if they do that, then we put a big tax of 25 percent on their cars and believe me, they won’t be doing it very long,” he added.

Trump had earlier warned to impose more tariffs on car imports from the European Union despite the new tariff plan, with member states being concerned about the impact of the new tariffs on their economies.

Following Trump’s announcement, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker complained that the proposed tariffs were a blatant intervention that amounted to protectionism, vowing to act “firmly” against the plan.

“We will not sit idly while our industry is hit with unfair measures that put thousands of European jobs at risk,” Juncker said.

EU’s response matches similar measures during a 2003 “steel war” unleashed by George W. Bush’s administration that eventually prompted the US to back down before the EU carried out its threat.

Source: Presstv

Actis (www.Act.is), a leading growth markets investor has started construction on “Douala Grand Mall & Business Park”, Cameroon’s first destination retail & leisure mall.

Developed by Actis and local partner Craft Development, Douala Grand Mall will comprise of 18,000 square metres of retail and leisure space, close to Bonapriso in Cameroon’s largest city. The mall will include multiple restaurants, a children’s play zone, a five screen cinema, a supermarket and retail shops. The Mall is Phase 1 of the development which also includes a business park hosting a hotel and corporate offices spaces.

To continue its strategic roll-out in modern trade, CFAO the international group specialised in distribution in Africa, has signed an agreement to set up and operate a Carrefour Market in the shopping mall and the leading Hospitality & Entertainment conglomerate Genesis Group is the cinema anchor.

The South African contractor, Raubex has been appointed as the general contractor and is now mobilised on site. A formal ground-breaking will take place mid-2018. The project is expected to create over 4,500 jobs using local material and labour and has been granted tax incentives following a convention signed with the Government of the Republic of Cameroon.

Amanda Jean-Baptiste, Partner, Head of West Africa, Real Estate at Actis, said: “Actis is thrilled to reach this key milestone in delivering Cameroon’s first destination retail mall; anchored by two flagship brands seeking to benefit from the growing consumer power. The Mall will make a significant contribution to job creation and other economic indicators in the Cameroonian economy.”

Mathurin Jidjouc Kamdem CEO of Craft Development added: this is a landmark project that will provide the vibrant city of Douala with one of its biggest international standard mixed-used development, with over 4,500 jobs created in both the construction and the operation phases.

Actis is also invested in the electricity sector in Cameroon. In partnership with the government Actis holds a majority interest in the country’s electricity utility, Eneo. Actis is in advanced discussions with the Government to facilitate further significant investment into the energy sector to continue to expand the electricity grid and improve the quality of supply. Actis has also established Honoris United Universities, a pan-African higher education business which brings together the most prestigious universities, Actis also has a strong presence across the wider Francophone Africa region including energy, education and healthcare businesses.

Source: Internationalsupermarketnews

The Philippine labor minister says over 2,200 Filipinos are ready to take up an offer by President Rodrigo Duterte to repatriate workers from Kuwait amid reports of abuse.

Silvestre Bello III said on Sunday that almost 500 Filipino workers were due to arrive soon.

“We have been informed that as of Friday there were 2,200-plus Filipinos who are willing to go home,” the minister said.

He added that the government would also help repatriated workers find jobs.

“We are into a re-integration programme, we have a programme in place for them,” Bello said, adding, “They will be given a livelihood.”

“We are now in the process of looking for alternative markets. One of them is China and even Russia,” the minister said, without elaborating.

Bello said some of the Filipinos had overstayed their visas in Kuwait and applied for an amnesty.

The minister also stated that the airlines had arranged free charter flights to facilitate the repatriation.

Duterte asked Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific on Friday to provide flights for the Filipinos who wanted to leave Kuwait. The president has said that suspension would remain indefinitely.

A body of a Filipino worker was found in a freezer of an abandoned apartment in Kuwait recently.

Last month, the Philippines suspended sending workers to Kuwait after reports came out that abuse by employers had driven several to suicide.

Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah expressed “surprise and sorrow” at Duterte’s remarks in January, saying that legal proceedings had been taken in the four suicide cases mentioned by the president.

The Philippine Foreign Ministry estimates more than 250,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, most of them as domestic helpers. There are also large numbers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf region have come under criticism by international organizations and rights groups due to mistreatment of foreign workers. Millions of poor Asians are working in the Persian Gulf states. Human rights groups say many of the workers suffer exploitation and abuse, including non-payment of wages.

Human Rights Watch and other rights organizations have also slammed mass deportations of migrant workers, which are fairly common in the kingdoms and sheikhdoms, saying they often involve physical abuse and detention in poor conditions.

Last month, a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) painted a grim picture of the human rights situation in the UAE, raising concern over the torture of prisoners, injustice against foreign workers and discrimination against women in the Persian Gulf state. The report argued that the justice system in the UAE is complex and impedes migrant workers and the stateless from bringing their grievances to justice.

Reports said in February 2017 that Saudi Arabia had expelled nearly 40,000 Pakistani migrant workers over the past four months.

Official statistics in Saudi Arabia indicate that 243,000 Pakistanis were expelled between 2012-2015.

A new study shows that the British economy will suffer a £252bn hit if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal.

The new analysis, which is based on a controversial UK government report, reveals that a no-deal Brexit would see GDP plummet by more than a quarter of a trillion pounds over 15 years.

The study shared with The Independent also shows that the damage would be cut in half if Prime Minister Theresa May strikes a free trade agreement with the bloc.

That agreement would still result in national output being £131bn lower over the same period, according to the analysis.

Even if Britain stays in the European single market, there will still be a loss of 52 billion pounds over this period, shows the research done by the Best for Britain Group.

The research fully exposed the “Brexit black hole at heart of the economy,” said the group.

“Sadly, now we are seeing the economic analysis becoming project fact and it means that we are facing a massive Brexit blow,” said Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, the group’s chairman.

“Losing billions means we will have less cash for the NHS, our schools and our public services. This all shows the best option for communities up and down the country is to stay in and keep the deal we have,” Malloch-Brown added.

Last month, the government released a report depicting the economic damage forecast in the Treasury Brexit analysis.

The new calculation is the most comprehensive attempt yet to put a price on the government report, which showed that Britain’s economy would be worse off, regardless of what the exit scenario is.

Based on the report, a no-deal Brexit, which leaves Britain trading with Europe on World Trade Organisation terms, would reduce growth by 8 percent over the same period.

“This Government are not competent to deal with the challenges ahead. They are going to hit people in the pocket through their hapless handling of Brexit.  Starkly, we are facing a Brexit bombshell for the economy,” Malloch-Brown said.

May has faced growing public calls from across her Conservative party this week to set out her vision for Brexit more clearly, amid media reports of increasing discontent with her leadership.

Negotiations are taking place between the UK and the EU ahead of Britain’s scheduled exit in March 2019.

Source: Presstv

A group of Cameroonian activists demanding secession from the French-speaking regions says it’s considering attacks on foreign companies operating in the central African nation.

The group, which hails from the country’s two Anglophone regions, says it wants to “target foreign companies investing in Cameroon” because their revenues sustain “incompetent officials” in President Paul Biya’s government, according to emailed comments from a spokesman, Chris Anu, on Friday. Anu didn’t specify the nature of the attacks.

Ten leaders of the separatist movement, which refers to the two Anglophone regions as the Republic of Ambazonia, have been held in neighboring Nigeria since Jan. 6 at an undisclosed location, according to their Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana. Nigeria’s State Security Service has denied knowledge of their detention, he said. Nigerian authorities haven’t yet commented on the issue.

“Abducting our leaders isn’t going to deter us, it will only just spur us the more,” the group said in a statement last week.

Thousands of people have crossed the border into Nigeria and more refugees are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as the Cameroonian government intensifies its actions against the pro-independent movement, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in a Jan. 16 statement. The agency and its Nigerian counterpart, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, officially registered 9,620 asylum seekers by Jan. 12, according to the statement.

www.bloomberg.com