Africa could be home to 90% of the world’s poor by 2030 as governments across the continent have little fiscal space to invest in poverty-reduction programs and economic growth remains sluggish, the World Bank said.

That’s up from 55% in 2015 and it will happen unless drastic action is taken, the lender said in its biannual Africa Pulse report released Wednesday, in which it also cut growth forecasts for the region’s key economies.

The rate of poverty reduction in Africa “slowed substantially” after the collapse in commodity prices that started in 2014, resulting in negative gross domestic product growth on a per capita basis, according to the report. “As countries in other regions continue to make progress in poverty reduction, forecasts suggest that poverty will soon become a predominantly African phenomenon.”

While the poverty rate in sub-Saharan Africa, defined as the percentage of people living on less than $1.90 per day, fell between 1990 and 2015, rapid population growth resulted in the number of poor people on the continent increasing to more than 416 million from 278 million over the same period, according to World Bank data.

The lender said pro-poor growth policies are required to accelerate poverty reduction and that fiscal tightening limits governments’ ability to spend on social sectors.

“Given the limited scope for redistribution and transfers to raise the incomes of the poor in most African countries, the focus should be squarely on raising their labor productivity, that is, what it will take to increase their earnings in self-employment or wage employment,” according to the report.

Government debt increased to 55% of GDP in 2018, from 36% in 2013 due to a lack of fiscal consolidation after countries tried to counter the effects of the global financial crisis by boosting spending, the World Bank said. About 46% of African countries were in debt distress or considered at high risk in 2018 compared with 22% five years earlier.

“For many countries it’s not a good idea to borrow non-concessionally because of the risk of the debt distress that they already have,” World Bank Vice President Akihiko Nishio said in an interview Oct. 2 in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan. “They should instead focus on concessional credits and grants.”

The lender lowered its economic growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa to 2.6%, down from its April projection of 2.8%.

Source: Bloomberg

The financial scandal that rocked the Southern Cameroons Interim Government under the leadership of the disgraced Dr Ikome Sako has not led to an extreme economic downturn of the Ambazonia resistance. There has not been any whiff of resignation but those involved are operating shamefully under the banner of an obscure organisation known as Sako’s IG.

Consequently, the Dabney Yerima administration and patriotic Ambazonia citizens have now developed the Bond Holder Project and the most likely outcome will be an end game for the Sako-Chris comedy and some form of agreement that will see Southern Cameroonians donating again to the struggle.

Correspondingly, the cabinet has summoned patriotic Ambazonia citizens to participate in a meeting tomorrow Wednesday the 9^th October 2019 anticipating an outcome that despite numerous revolutionary opinions, will limit corruption within the Ambazonia Interim Government.

Whilst it is unlikely to be a permanent solution to the question of financial transparency deep within the Interim Government, it might offer a valuable commodity to all Southern Cameroons economic, political and institutional relationship.

The stakes are high in this “knife-edge equilibrium’ as we of the Cameroon Concord News Group cannot know if Ambazonians will buy into it and what the final result will be!  But given the failed so-called Grand National Dialogue and the urgent need to reignite My Trip To Buea, how patriotic Ambazonians will react to this new development remains to be seen after tomorrow’s meeting.

We are keeping a watchful eye on the Ambazonia exiled government and we will keep our readers posted on any development as we get it!!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority confirmed (27-Sep-2019) discussions between Cameroon and Qatar’s Ministries of Transport on 25-Sep-2019 focused on the “revival” of Camair-Co.

Discussions covered the “densification” of the airline’s fleet, the training of flight crew and technical personnel, the opening of a maintenance centre, technical support and opening the capital of Camair-Co.

Source: Centre for Aviation

Camair-Co informs that it has taken appropriate measures to suit its domestic flights’ schedule with the various delegations that will be in Yaoundé for the upcoming national dialogue.

In that regard, the concerned delegations are invited to send, within reasonable deadlines, their travel schedules to Camair-Co’s various agencies near their residence.

The national dialogue was announced by President Paul Biya during a televised message on September 10, 2019. Presided by the prime minister, this dialogue will address the sociopolitical crisis ongoing in the Southwest and Northwest since 2016. It will gather deputies, politicians, public figures, economic operators and members of the diaspora.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon has discovered 300 new mineral mines. The mineral mines were discovered across the ten regions of this Central African nation. Among the mines discovered were sapphire, zinc, rare earth, uranium, nickel, and manganese. The discovery was made possible by a project funded by the World Bank.

According to the Cameroonian Minister for Mines and Technological Development, Dodo Ndocké, the country has increased its potential for mineral resources.

The discovery was made between 2014 and 2019 when the World Bank assisted the project in the country. As a result of the project, the central African country now boasts of 300 new mining sites after exploration operations.

The minister of mines made this known during a press conference before the Cameroon International Mining Exposition in Yaoundé.

These sites were discovered in the East, the West, the North, the Centre and in Adamaoua.

The minerals discovered on these sites are extensive. They range from gold, zinc, rare earth, uranium, nickel and rutile to manganese.

The goal of these projects is to evaluate the country’s actual mining potential. Before the project, only 40% of the country’s territory had been checked for mining resources.

The big question on the lips of critics, however, is whether the discovery will help reduce the crisis in the country.

The Anglophone Crisis, also known as the Ambazonia War, or the Cameroonian Civil War, is a conflict in the Southern Cameroons region of Cameroon, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem.

What started as a struggle for equality and justice by citizens of southern Cameroon has spiraled into a full-blown crisis.

Rebel groups seeking an end to what they consider domination of the Anglophone south by the francophone north have taken up weapons against the government’s security forces. The crisis has led to the deaths of hundreds while many more are forced from their homes.

We can only hope that this good news which opens more revenue channels for the country helps to unite it, rather than tear it apart.

Source: Africa Exponent

Some 300 new mining sites were discovered in Cameroon in the past five years, Cameroon’s Minister of Mining, Industries and Technological Development Gabriel Dodo Ndoke said on Tuesday.

New mines range from gold, zinc, rare earth, uranium, nickel and rutile to manganese, said Ndoke at the 2019 edition of Cameroon International Mining Exhibition and Conference (CIMEC), held from Monday to Wednesday in the capital city, Yaounde.

“The stakes of CIMEC are high given the multi-faceted, short and medium term benefits accruing from investments made and which we wish to attain through the mining and processing of minerals,” Ndoke said.

This year’s expo will feature an exhibition by mining companies and suppliers, speeches and discussions. More than 100 exhibitors will introduce the latest technology and equipment for the mining industry during the three-day expo, according to the organizers.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Monday signed a decree declaring the troubled Northwest, Southwest and Far-North regions “economic risk zones.”

Companies operating in the economic risk zones will benefit from tax exemption for three years, according to the decree which did not specify additional measures.

In July, Cameroon’s Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development Alamine Ousmane Mey said the country’s sustainable development goals were facing “significant obstacles” as a result of the insecurity in the two Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions where separatists want to create an independent nation, and the insurgency of Boko Haram in the Far-North region.

Conflict in the Anglophone regions has led to the “partial or complete” closure of about 20 companies, according to government statistics.

Source: Xinhuanet

“Cameroonian rice producers don’t get any subsidies”

Bernard Njonga told the FRANCE 24 Observers team about what he calls a “scandalous” situation.

When I went to Yagoua and Maga, I didn’t expect to see so much rice in the warehouses- especially not rice that has been sitting there unsold since 2015!

Currently, the cost of producing rice in Cameroon elevated because rice producers don’t get any subsidies. What’s more, transporting a bag of rice between Yagoua and Yaoundé costs more than if it came from Beijing. So, for shopkeepers, it is more profitable to buy foreign rice than local rice. So, Cameroonian rice producers are becoming poorer and poorer.

We think that three things need to be done. First, we need to impose a quota, insuring that local shopkeepers buy a certain percentage of local rice. [Editor’s note: The ACDIC has already launched a petition calling for this.] We also need to provide subsidies to local farmers, and to promote local rice to improve its image. 

Nothing out of the ordinary, according to SEMRY

The FRANCE 24 Observers reached out to the director general of SEMRY, but he did not respond to our request for comment.

However, SEMRY did release a statement in response to the post by the president of the ACDIC, explaining that SEMRY had “started to store rice in its shops in Maga and Yagoua in 2017”, “in preparation for the launch of […] two new machine lines” purchased by the government to “relaunch the transformation of paddy rice”. This could explain why there was so much rice stocked in the SEMRY warehouses.

However, SEMRY did not respond to the comments made by the ACDIC president about the difference in price between local rice and foreign rice, and the difficulties of rice producers.

The statement by the director general of SEMRY.

“People know that working in the rice sector isn’t profitable but many do it because they don’t have a choice”