Southern Cameroons: CDC accumulates CFA35 billion in salary arrears despite govt aid ⁰

Despite resuming operations in 2020 after a suspension in September 2018 due to the Anglophone crisis, CDC continues to struggle with paying its employees’ salaries. This challenge persists despite various financial support from the state, the sole shareholder of the company.

“The operational challenges faced by CDC do not allow it to honor its financial commitments. There is a notable overall increase in its debt… For social debt, the increase is linked to the evolution of salary arrears as of December 31, 2022, by 17.78%, despite state support, as well as the accumulation of unpaid social security contributions increasing by 15%. As of June 30, 2023, salary arrears stand at CFA35.7 billion, and the social debt to the National Social Security Fund (CNPS) is CFA26.7 billion,” reveals the report on the situation of public and parastatal enterprises in 2022 recently published by the Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public and Parastatal Sector Enterprises (CTR). This equates to approximately 17 months of accumulated salary arrears, given a monthly payroll estimated at CFA2 billion according to official figures.

CDC recorded cumulative losses of CFA38.7 billion between 2019 and 2021, according to CTR data. This made it the local company bearing the heaviest burden of ongoing separatist demands in the Northwest and Southwest regions. In 2018, for instance, 12 production sites out of the company’s 29 were completely halted due to insecurity created by separatists in the plantations. The separatists even transformed some of these sites into bases for their armed militias, resulting in the killing and severe injury of several workers.

This challenging situation officially led to the loss of 6,124 jobs out of the more than 22,000. Job losses likely increased during 2022 due to the precarious situation of the CDC. “There is an increasingly significant staff turnover, despite government subsidies allocated for partial salary payments,” reveals the CTR report.

Source: Business in Cameroon