Even before the Friday incident at the Nsimalen International airport when a plane belonging to Cameroon’s national carrier, CAMAIR-CO ran off the runway, causing panic among passengers and flight crew, analysts had warned that CPDM corruption and poor leadership was making it difficult for the Biya regime to improve Cameroon’s air safety.

The exact circumstances of the incident are not yet known but first unofficial report hinted of no casualties.

Nsimalen airport officials say they have successfully evacuated all the passengers onboard the plane from the scene and only a scientific investigation will reveal the cause of the problem.

Despite CamairCo assurances to its customers, controversy still rages over the cause of the Nsimalen incident.

According to Cameroon Intelligence Report, which quoted an anonymous official in the Ministry of Transport, Camair Co has been flying coffins for over a decade.

The regime in Yaoundé has reportedly denied that the plane was faulty. But many in the Aviation industry contacted by Cameroon Concord News said that there were issues with the engine.

Some months ago, seven Cameroon government ministers had to make an emergency trip to the North of the country using a Kenya airways plane.

No one in the Ministry of Transport can provide any information on the various departments responsible for control of the systems, in terms of certification and control of CamairCo activities.

The general manager of CamairCo and his entire staff including the board of directors are all chartered members of the ruling CPDM Crime Syndicate. Correspondingly, the company avoids complying with government regulations by paying off officials.

If the CamairCo plane that ran off the runway on Friday was faulty, then it is evidently clear that the company paid an inspector to allow the aircraft to fly.

Air travel within Cameroon and all of Africa remains relatively dangerous. In 2010, The International Civil Aviation Organization reported that the accident rate for air traffic in Africa was more than four times the global average.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

Cameroon’s poultry farmers and sellers are calling on authorities at home and in Europe to loosen trade restrictions put in place over the coronavirus pandemic and avian influenza, which have more than doubled the price of chicken.

Scores of chicken sellers in Cameroon’s capital held a one-hour sit-in Monday at the Mvog-Ada chicken market to protest the continued restrictions, which have pushed all but about 25 sellers — out of 300 last year — out of business.

One of those remaining chicken sellers is 33-year-old single mother Patricia Lamou, who says providing food and education for her four children is proving difficult.

Lamou says her business started to nosedive in March 2020 when Cameroon reported its first cases of COVID-19. She says her supplier blamed COVID-19-related travel restrictions by Cameroon and Europe for making regular supplies of chicks and hatching eggs impossible.

François Djonou, president of Cameroon’s Interprofessional Association of Poultry Farmers, says European countries and Cameroon reduced commercial flights to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The poultry shortage was further aggravated in November 2020, when the European Commission reported that multiple European countries had outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu. The viral infection can cause disease or death in birds and people.

As a precaution, Cameroon banned the import of chicks and hatching eggs from Europe. However, the avian influenza outbreak has since eased.

Cameroon’s chicken sellers are pleading with authorities on both sides to drop the trade restrictions, as they are creating a scarcity of chicken and driving up prices in the region.

Since January 2021, the retail cost of 1.5 kilograms of chicken has jumped from $5 to $12 in Cameroon, and up to $15 in neighboring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, which import from Cameroon.

The poultry farmers group says the situation has forced more than a third of Central Africa’s 45,000 large- and small-scale chicken farmers and sellers out of business.

The group says regional production cannot keep up with demand. Central African states provide less than 20 million of the 150 million chickens needed in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, according to the group.

Meanwhile, Cameroon Livestock Ministry official Denise Abanda says they are negotiating to import eggs and chicks from Brazil.

“The importation of chicks and eggs from Brazil can be justified by the fact that the national poultry sector, which imports chicks and eggs from Europe, has difficulties to supply the local market with day-old chicks,” Abanda said. “So, the decision of the ministry is to find another partner from Brazil to supply the local market.”

Abanda says Brazil can provide the quantity of eggs and chicks that Cameroon needs.

Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of poultry and the third-largest producer of chicken meat, after the United States and China.

Culled from VOA

Cameroon is in talks with Rothschild & Co. to advise on a planned Eurobond sale in the first half of this year, Treasury officials said.

“The government is in negotiations with Rothschild to pilot the next Eurobond for Cameroon,” Department of Treasury Director Tela Samuel said by phone from the capital, Yaounde. A Rothschild spokesperson declined to comment when contacted.

The proceeds from the sale will be used to help repay $750 million of debt the government issued in 2015, Treasury Director-General Moh Sylvester said by phone on Friday. “The intention is to issue before June 30,” he said.

Cameroon’s planned sale comes as increased spending by the U.S. on economic stimulus is driving up global borrowing costs. It would follow offerings by Benin, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Ghana so far this year, while Kenya and Nigeria have announced plans for issues.

The debt sales are taking place as African nations seek funds to roll over debt and finance budgets strained by the coronavirus pandemic. Other countries, including Ethiopia, have opted to seek debt relief under a Group-of-20 initiative.

Yields on Cameroon’s 2015 bonds have almost halved after reaching a record high in April last year, and traded at 7.16% in London on Friday.

Culled from Bloomberg

He does not have the international prestige of Danpullo, Colin Mukete or Kate Fotso. And yet, Njong Eric Njong is the most prominent Anglophone entrepreneur in Cameroon today.

Three years ago, Célestin Tawamba, the boss of bosses, had already named 59-year-old Njong Eric Njong – who spares no effort nor smiles – among the 60 pioneers of Cameroon’s economy.

Tawamba even co-opted Njong and put his name forward during the last election of the executive board of the Groupement Interpatronal du Cameroun (Gicam), in December 2020.

National preference

At Gicam, Njong succeeded Franklin Ngoni Njie, head of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), which is the country’s leading (public) agro-industrial group.

Like CDC, his company, Boh Plantations – founded 12 years ago – produces bananas. Established in the South-West (where Njong himself comes from), it remains a small player in a sector dominated by PHP (Compagnie Fruitière de Marseille), the latter giving it technical assistance. Contrary to what happened to CDC in 2018-2019, the security crisis has not forced Boh Plantations to cease its activities for the time being.

Njong’s compatriots know him best through Buns, the construction company that the Lagos University-educated architect set up in 1993 and which has merged with the firm he founded.

Buns is one of the few local players – along with André Siaka’s Routd’Af – that can still compete with the multinationals in this sector. This businessman, who is a champion of “national preference” within the construction industry, is not hostile to all foreign investors.

For example, he is still chair of the board following the merger between the Cameroonian insurance firm Zenithe and its Senegalese equivalent Sonam.

Immersed for a long time in the financial sector, he also chairs the board of directors of the Union Bank of Cameroon, an institution which – after years of difficulty – may finally see the end of the tunnel.

In February, the state promised to recapitalise the bank, following a decision by Cameroon’s President Paul Biya.

Culled from The Africa Report by Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

MTN Cameroon has announced a new brand campaign with the slogan “Unbeatable with MTN, the indomitable network”. It highlights coverage, speed and quality of a service covering more than 97 percent of the population via 2G, 3G+, 4G and 4.5G technologies.

Source: Telecompaper

Today (9 March 2021) the United Kingdom has signed an Economic Partnership Agreement with Cameroon.

The trade deal, which will support jobs and build future prosperity, was signed by International Trade Minister Ranil Jayawardena and High Commissioner of Cameroon to the UK, H.E. Albert Fotabong Njoteh in London. The deal provides certainty for British and Cameroonian businesses, ensuring they can continue to trade as freely as they do now without any additional barriers or tariffs.

The UK-Cameroon trade was worth around £200m in 2019, and this deal lays a foundation to extend our trading relationship in the future. The UK market accounts for 12% of total exports of bananas from Cameroon and this agreement will maintain tariff-free market access to the UK. It also guarantees continued market access for UK exporters, who sold £50m in goods to Cameroon in 2019.

International Trade Minister Ranil Jayawardena said:

Today’s deal secures opportunities for both British and Cameroonian businesses – and will help support jobs and foster investment.

International trade and investment are engines of economic growth around the globe, so today’s deal will play a crucial role as we all build back better from Covid-19.

Minister for Africa James Duddridge said:

This agreement will make sure around £200m of trade between the UK and Cameroon can continue, supporting Cameroonian businesses to increase operations, enabling UK exporters to sell more goods and boosting prosperity for both countries as we together recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This provides the continuity businesses in both the UK and Cameroon need to ensure trade between our countries continues to flourish and grow.

Today’s signing comes after the agreement to roll over current EU-Cameroon trading arrangements from 1 January 2021 concluded at the end of December.

The UK government has secured agreements covering 66 countries plus the EU, worth £890bn of trade in 2019.

Source: Gov.UK

The Chadian government, which is mired in debt and badly affected by the Covid-19 crisis, wants to speed up the sale of part of its shares in the COTCO oil pipeline to Cameroonian state-owned oil company SNH and President Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate are poised to buy the Chadian oil pipeline stake as Idris Deby battles with economic crisis.

Source: Africa Intelligence

Cameroon could lose its access to the lucrative European Union seafood market due to the government’s failure to tackle illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The European Commission has put Cameroon on notice by issuing the country a “yellow card,” which is a formal warning that could lead to a total ban on seafood exports from the country to the E.U.

Cameroon, the commission said, has so far failed to abide by agreed standards “under international law of the sea as flag, port, and market state.”

The commission identified a lack of a robust registration policy for fishing vessels to operate under its flag, and insufficient attempts to ensure efficient and adequate control over fishing activities carried out by vessels flying the country’s flag, key constraints in Cameroon’s involvement in the fight against IUU.

According to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Cameroon is notorious in offering a “flag of convenience” to fishing vessels operating illegally with minimal monitoring and enforcement hence facilitating illicit marine seafood harvest “by making it hard to identify and take action against boat owners.”

“We very much welcome the European Commission’s decision to warn and initiate a formal dialogue with Cameroon,” EJF Executive Director Steve Trent said.

Trent said illegal operators using Cameroon’s flag of convenience abetted illicit fishing that “undermine any attempts to manage fisheries sustainably and push fish populations to collapse, threatening food security and livelihoods in many regions.”

He commended the European Commission’s use of the carding system, which he said is a “powerful tool against flags of convenience and has helped several countries such as Togo, reform dramatically.”

The preference of Cameroon as the source of the flag of convenience has been linked to laxity in government, with EJF’s previous findings showing at least a third of vessels, now sailing under the country’s flag, were adopted “only recently, in the last two to three years, despite having no obvious link with the country.”

The country’s fishing capacity is now nine times larger than it was before 2018, according to the EJF.

“Sustained commitment to progress is needed from all countries if we are to succeed in ending illegal fishing and once again the European Union is leading the world in this commitment,” Trent said.

Previously, FAO had observed emergence of a small industrial fleet “consisting primarily of shrimp trawlers, which are however often operated in joint venture with distant fishing nations.”

Despite nearly 50 trawlers greater than 24 meters having been reported way back in 2009, FAO says there are no reliable recent figures reported.

By 2015, a total fleet of 12,700 vessels was reported with 4,000 unpowered and 7,200 powered vessels, all under 12 meters, according to the FAO. An estimated 239,000 metric tons (MT) of fish was caught at the time, with 75,000 MT from inland waters and 164,000 MT from marine waters. More than 65 percent of the total catch is small pelagics.

Source: Seafoodsource.com

For all intents and purposes, Cameroon is not known as a key mining destination. However, I believe that AIM-listed Oriole Resources’ first mover advantage could unlock the country’s true gold potential.

Last week Oriole received five new exploration licences in central Cameroon via its 90%-owned subsidiary, Oriole Cameroon. The licences, together with a further three new licences granted to Oriole’s partner, Reservoir Minerals Cameroon.

This represents a contiguous, district-scale land package covering 3,592 km2 of gold-prospective terrane in central Cameroon. The licences have an initial three-year term of a possible total nine years tenure.

Oriole is already involved in more advanced exploration programmes currently ongoing at the Bibemi and Wapouzé projects in the north of the country. Now, the new licences will expand the company’s operational base in Cameroon.

Favourable signs of promise

Oriole’s CEO, Tim Livesey, said, “As first movers in Cameroon, and with further advanced exploration ongoing at our Bibemi and Wapouzé projects in the north of the country, we are extremely pleased to have received formal approval for these additional new licences.

“Based on our in-house prospectivity analysis in 2019, this district-scale grassroots licence package was identified as having significant potential to host orogenic-type gold mineralisation. Key geological attributes of the district include suitable host rock geology, a favourable structural location covering deep crustal structures, and historic evidence of gold mineralisation. We believe that this contiguous package of nearly

3,600 km2, offers exciting Greenfield potential and we look forward to commencing our first-pass exploration programmes during the first half of the year.”

Cameroon’s mineral potential remains vastly untapped. These resources include gold, bauxite, cobalt from lode deposits, granite, iron ore, nepheline syenite, nickel, and rutile. For decades mining has never been a key area of focus. Positively, now green shoots are starting to emerge as companies are looking to start mining in the country.

Oriole’s current position puts it ahead of the curve and I will be closely watching developments unfold in the coming months. Could Oriole be the key that finally unlocks the country’s true gold potential?

Source: Mining Review

Despite receiving support from international institutions, Yaounde recorded its worst economic performance in two decades.

With negative growth likely when the statistics come in for 2020 – -1.2% compared to a previously predicted 4.1% – the country is expected to record its worst economic performance in the last two decades.

This is a trend that Yaounde wants to work to reverse in order to stop the recession. The task promises to be difficult in a climate marked by successive falls in oil prices, the halt in growth kinked to the African Cup of Nations’ infrastructure projects and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The only positive aspect of this unfortunate situation is that Cameroon continues to receive support from international institutions. With debt around 40% of GDP, international partners – such as the IMF – strongly supported the country in 2020, while praising its economic discipline.

Infrastructure and industrialisation

In the medium term, Cameroon plans to use its Stratégie Nationale de Développement 2020-2030 – unveiled in mid-November 2020 – to set a new course. It was conceived after the previous plan – the Document de Stratégie pour la Croissance et l’Emploi – failed.

President Paul Biya announced that industrialising the country would be of the utmost priority – which has been put temporarily on hold while the master plan of industrialisation is updated – as it could help stimulate economic growth.

THE RACE TO TRANSFORM

These advances should enable Cameroon to continue its preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament, which it will host in 2022. The building of infrastructure, which was at a standstill for a while, has made considerable progress. In addition, the African Nations Championship, reserved for local players and held in January on already operational sites, served as a trial run.

The Anglophone crisis is still raging

Finally, one remaining question: will the long-awaited decentralisation programme be successful? In early December, regional elections – which were won overwhelmingly by the ruling Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais – were held, but they are unlikely to put an end to the conflict between Yaounde and the English-speaking separatists of Ambazonia.

Re-elected for a seventh term in 2018, President Paul Biya has still not managed to resolve the Anglophone crisis raging in the South-West and North-West regions.

Culled from Africa Report