Leading international container and project cargo line Marguisa,has launched its new Cameroon service, the MARGUISA CAMEROON SERVICE (MCS). It will provide a direct weekly connection between the port of Malabo and the port of Douala, making Malabo a hub port in the region.

Driven by the need to ensure regular stopovers by the MAS service, affected by the operational limitations and the port congestion in West Africa, this service fully operated by Marguisa is 5 days faster than the current one. It serves Douala from any part of the world thanks to the Marguisa connection.

Source: Africa Logistics

Cameroon’s rising inflation is starting to worry the National Institute of Statistics (INS). In a recent note, the public entity warned that if the trend continues, the rate could exceed the 3% threshold set in the Cemac sub-region.

At the end of March this year, inflation averaged 2.9% in the country, very close to the Cemac cap. Worse, some regions have already either reached or exceeded it. These include Ebolowa (+4.5%), Bamenda (+4.4%), Maroua (+4.3%), Bertoua (+3.9%), Bafoussam (+3.6%) and Garoua (+3.0%). INS said the price hike is mainly due to an increase in the prices of food products, especially meat, bread, cereals, flour, fish, oil, and vegetables.

“The rise in the prices of food and energy worldwide constitute a double threat of inflation,” warns the INS. As a result, the agency says, local businesses are likely to face more difficulties in sourcing inputs. This, in turn, could raise producer prices and thus accelerate inflation in local products, including manufactured goods and agricultural products.

To stabilize the general price level, if not to reverse the trend, the stats agency suggests that the government implement additional support measures (both comprehensive and targeted) for businesses and households. It also recommends that the policies for the structural transformation of the economy be accelerated to strengthen the capacity of the national economy to face shocks related to the supply of goods and services.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Negotiations between Cameroon and Sundance Resources (and its local subsidiary Cam Iron SA), which began in the second half of 2021, for an amicable settlement of the dispute over the Mbalam iron ore mining project, have failed.

The Australian mining company brought the case to the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris in June 2021 to force Cameroon to grant it an operating license on the project, after the mining convention of November 29, 2012, and the transition agreement of June 30, 2015. The company said Cameroon was about to grant the license to another partner.

Sundance wants Cameroon to at least repay the amount it invested in the research phase. The money is estimated at CFA94 billion (subject to audit), according to the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (Minmidt), whose services led the negotiations with the Australian mining company.

Disapproval

Gabriel Dodo Ndocké believes that paying this “debt” will put a definitive end to the battle between the Cameroonian government and Sundance Resources but President Paul Biya (pictured) seems to disapprove. In a letter dated April 18, the President said he prefers an arbitration approach and has already contacted Thierry Lauriol, a lawyer at the Paris bar and partner in the firm Jeantet, to defend Cameroon before the court. Thierry Lauriol was Congo’s lawyer before the court of arbitration of London when the country was battling against the same company for the Congolese part of the same project.

The lawyer should have already filed the response of the State of Cameroon to the request for arbitration before the deadline of April 30, 2022. Under this strategy, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motazé, was instructed to urgently make $55,000 (about 34.57 million CFA francs) available to the collector at the Embassy of Cameroon in Paris. The money covered the urgent procedure that ended April 1, 2022, by a decision not favorable to Cameroon. The International Court of Arbitration in Paris issued a provisional decision prohibiting Cameroon “from issuing an exploitation permit for the Mbalam iron ore deposit or from issuing any instrument or document having a similar effect, to Sonamines or any other entity,” Sundance reported.

Delay

In August 2021, Sundance Resources announced it was relying on arbitration proceedings against Cameroon and Congo to pay debts owed to its shareholders estimated at $132 million (about CFA70.86 billion), as of the end of January 2021. In Congo, the Australian firm is claiming damages of $8.76 billion, or more than CFA4,700 billion at the current value of the US dollar.

Since 2015, after several extensions of its exploration license on the project, the Australian mining junior has not managed to secure a technical and financial partner for the implementation of infrastructure related to the Mbalam project (construction of a railway more than 500 km between Mbalam and Kribi, of the mine and a mineral terminal at the deepwater port of Kribi). Successive attempts with the Chinese companies China Gezhouba, in 2015, Tidfore Heavy Equipment Group Ltd, in 2018, and AustSino, after 2018, have all failed.

On June 25, 2021, in Yaoundé, Cameroon signed an MoU with AutSino Resources Group Ltd and Bestway Finance Ltd for the construction of the railway (more than 500 km) linking Mbalam to the deepwater port of Kribi. This prompted Sundance to take AutSino to court in Australia for breach of trust. Sundance believes that the Chinese company used the data it had provided to negotiate and obtain the Mbalam permit behind its back.

Culled from Business in Cameroon

Cameroon and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on Thursday signed an agreement on funding the railway line between Belabo and Ngaoundere in the eastern part of the Central African nation.

Vice President of the EIB Thomas Ostros began a working visit in Cameroon Thursday, hoping to explore further avenues of economic cooperation between the EU and the Central African nation. During his stay, Ostros met with the country’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and other senior government officials in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, and discussed the prospects for increasing investment.

It is believed that the signing of the agreement during his visit will involve an investment of 80 billion XAF (about 129 million U.S. dollars).

“We see this as a ground-breaking project. It is about connecting people but also for business and job opportunities. It fits also with our ambition to invest in sustainable transport. Actually, the biggest investment that we have made in sustainable transport in Sub-Saharan Africa ever,” Ostros, who signed on behalf of the EIB, told reporters in Yaounde.

Alamine Ousmane Mey, the minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, who signed on behalf of the Cameroonian government, expressed confidence that European investors would increasingly look at the favorable opportunities available in the country in the context of the positive steps taken by the government to create an investor friendly climate.

“This cooperation has led to a portfolio of projects amounting to roughly 880 million euros. This has made it possible to cover priority areas such as infrastructure, energy, industrial development and agriculture. This certainly is going to help Cameroon accelerate its development process,” Mey said.

Source: Xinhuanet

Authorities in Cameroon say anglophone separatists have joined forces with Nigerian militants to shut down nearly all trade across the two countries’ border. Cameroon depends on Nigeria for 70% of basic commodities and most of them are transported across the land border. Authorities say about 90% of trade has been halted as militants from both sides attack and abduct merchants.

Njume Peter Ambang is a lawmaker from Cameroon’s restive southwest region on the border with Nigeria. He said fighters within the past two months have taken control of many businesses, including palm oil plantations in Ndian, a division in the Southwest region.

“Maritime business has collapsed. The oil business has all collapsed. Palm oil fields have been seized by the separatists. They harvest the crops, they mill and sell. These guys are working with area boys (armed groups) in Nigeria,” he said.

Ambang was speaking in the Ndian capital, Mundemba, Sunday during a meeting to plead with local fighters to drop their guns and stop harassing merchants.

Cameroon’s military says several hundred fighters chased from towns and villages during raids by government troops relocated to the border with Nigeria. The military says the fighters have killed at least two dozen merchants and abducted scores of others for ransom since January.

Nigeria and Cameroon have promised to crush all separatists who do not surrender.

The two countries’ governments announced in February 2021 that they would work together to combat separatists and armed groups.

Cameroon this week said it deployed more troops to the border to protect civilians, merchants and their goods.

Source: VOA

The autonomous Douala port (PAD) is gradually taking over activities that were previously managed by foreign groups. Cyrus Ngo’o, the port authority’s boss, is in charge of dredging, weighing, security and managing the container terminal.

The Bolloré-Maersk consortium’s eviction from the container terminal in December 2020 and the ongoing litigation, which has been widely publicised, may lead one to believe that this disqualification of foreign operators was a one-off event.

However, a nationalist groundswell has indeed been sweeping through the Cameroonian economic capital’s port complex ever since Cyrus Ngo’o was made the head of the autonomous Douala port (PAD) five years ago. In October 2020, this trained civil administrator announced the return of the “state of Cameroon’s sovereignty over the main access route for goods and merchandise in the country.”

New agencies and companies

Under his leadership, a number of activities that were carried out by foreign companies – in line with the 1998 port reform which, among other things, established private operations – are now managed by local companies. Several of them are supervised by the port authorities. “As was the case before, when some activities were even directly operated by the former Office National des Ports du Cameroun [ONPC], the PAD’s ancestor,” says Lin Onana Ndoh, deputy director of the company in charge of towing and salvaging ships, which was established at the beginning of 2021 to replace the French company Boluda.

For the past two years, the delegated company has also been responsible for managing the container terminal, which was previously the responsibility of Douala International Terminal (DIT, a subsidiary of the French company Bolloré Transport & Logistics and the Dutch company APM Terminals), through the Régie du Terminal à Conteneurs (RTC). It has also taken over the dredging activities previously operated by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), as well as safety and security, for which a new entity has been created: Douala Port Security (DPS). This takeover was possible thanks to financial support from Afriland First Bank, which made lines of credit available to the port authorities to start their activities.

Another mechanism used was concession. This is the case for stevedoring, for which an agreement was signed last year with Fako Ship, one of the entities of the family group founded by Charles Namme Menyoli and established in Buea, in the South West region. It led to the creation of Douala Mooring Company (DMC), the project company in charge of the activity. The only exception to this rule is the concession for the timber yard’s management, which was concluded before Ngo’o’s arrival and remains a part of Bolloré group.

Countering multinationals’ blackmail

Public-private partnerships, including with foreign operators, are not excluded. For example, the Turkish company Erdem, financed by Afriland First Bank, will invest 15bn CFA francs [€22.87m] in the coming months to build 13 warehouses. Erdem has already created the Société de Gestion des Magasins Portuaires (SGMP) to ensure that these warehouses will be operational when the time comes.

For a long time, certain jobs were left to foreign operators who had the necessary tools, such as security – now entrusted to DPS – and weighing goods entering and leaving the port. This task has now been devolved to Douala Port Weighing Services (DPWS), which signed a 20-year operating agreement two years ago. “Since then, we have set up a network of weighbridges that are open to the public in the port area and capable of handling all the traffic,” says DPWS’ president Lucien Ndzomo Mviena.

In addition to the PAD’s stated intention, some renationalisations are the result of disagreements between the port authorities and the concessionaire regarding the specifications at the time of negotiations, which were supposed to lead to a contract renewal. “In this case, when the previous service provider could not convince the PAD of the need to reduce operating costs and maintain investments,” says Ndoh. According to Ngo’o, Cameroonising activities also makes it possible to counter “certain multinational companies’ persistent blackmail to stop work.”

Significant savings

The first impact of this PAD policy is the savings made across the port activity’s various segments. One of the best examples is the disappearance of head office costs, which the parent company charges to its subsidiaries and have an impact on the result, as well as better control over salary costs, resulting from expatriates’ departure.

Cameroonisation has also brought down costs. “Dredging represented 30% to 40% of the PAD’s operating costs, which is considerable. To dredge 3.7 million m³ of tailings, we were spending nearly 10bn CFA francs per year. We have reduced this cost to less than 4bn CFA francs per year for the same quantity treated,” says Idriss Beye, the dredging authority’s deputy director. Similarly, in terms of security, installing DPS and its video surveillance system has considerably reduced the number of larcenies suffered by the various operators. “This has prevented us from stealing fuel, which our predecessor deplored, and we have therefore been able to make significant savings,” says Ndoh.

Royalties

The dynamics set in motion have thus helped increase the PAD’s income and the resources needed to make the investments required to renovate the infrastructure and acquire new equipment. With a turnover of 56.8bn CFA francs for 2021 – up 14% from the previous financial year – the Régie du Terminal à Conteneurs (RTC) is expected to make a profit of more than 15bn CFA francs.

The net result of its more modest sister company specialising in towing is estimated at around CFAF 1bn, which translates to CFAF 4.3bn (up 23%) in revenue. Add to these resources a collection of fixed and variable royalties, which are increasing overall across the various businesses. In addition, the contract signed with the Swiss company Pukaly to reevaluate dredging residues guarantees an income of 45bn CFA francs for the next 15 years.

These initial satisfactory and promising results are already being replicated in the region’s other ports. For example, one of the dredgers that the PAD has recently acquired will leave in April to stay in the Congolese port of Pointe-Noire so that it can evacuate 1.7m tonnes of sand in order to facilitate maritime access. “We are even studying requests from Venezuela and Colombia,” says Beye.

Source: The Africa Report

When the Chinese arrived in Cameroon in 2011 to begin building the first phase of Kribi Deep Seaport, the Central African nation was hopeful of having a new transport corridor that would link its vast southwestern coastal area and neighboring nations.

The main existing port in the commercial hub of Douala, some 150 km to the north of Kribi was virtually worn out by congestion. To increase transport capacity, the China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) set out to construct the Kribi port, and in three years works were completed.

The new port has stimulated the country’s economy and provided relief for the harbor at Douala port, the country’s most populous city, while also providing dock space for larger ships, said Alain Patrick Mpila Ayissi, Manager of Land development and Environment department of Port Authority of Kribi.

“Since the construction works ended in 2014 and the start of port operations in 2018, there has been notable increase in economic growth. The first indicator is the hikes in the custom revenues as a result of the port. We left from 750 million XAF (US$1.26 million) to practically 150 billion XAF per annum,” said Ayissi.

As a cheap logistics mode, the port is a fundamental foundation of Cameroon’s industrialization process, said Xu Huajiang, general manager of China Harbour Central Africa Division of CHEC who oversaw the construction of the first phase of the port.

“So far, after Kribi (port) was founded, it has attracted a lot of external investment. For example, there is already a cocoa factory invested by Cote d’Ivoire. There are two cement plants under construction. Many logistics enterprises have settled in to build their own yards and warehouses. There are also some Chinese enterprises coming to discuss investment with them in this area,” Xu said.

Kribi port is located on the Atlantic coast some 285 km from the capital Yaounde. It is strategically positioned in the center of the Gulf of Guinea and is surrounded by the 262 square km Kribi Industrial Area, destined to host new industrial and logistical developments.

With Cameroon being a growing market, Kribi is expected to become a regional hub for the African Atlantic coast. Ship-owners will no longer run the risk of offloading part of their cargo elsewhere before docking in Cameroon, said Ayissi.

“With the coming of the Kribi port, Cameroon has once again placed herself as the port entry to the sub-region. This (the port) has added more value to certain industrial projects in Chad, Central African Republic and Congo,” he added.

As part of the project, CHEC also constructed the Kribi-Lolabe highway that will cater to the requirements of the port transportation and logistics and make a contribution to local prosperity.

The highway which includes the construction of 20 bridges, the total length of which is 2 km will serve as an important traffic artery in the Kribi region.

Currently, CHEC is busy constructing the Kribi Deep Sea Port Phase II. After the completion of the project, it is expected to become a large container transit port and comprehensive hub port in Central and West Africa.

Xu revealed that during the process of port and highway construction, over 1,000 jobs had been provided. Cameroonian workers employed by CHEC, including Eric Defo Fotso, Larissa Ekale Koule and Fran Mbofris told Xinhua that building their country’s largest port is an opportunity to update their own skills and contribute to the country’s industrialization.

“We have project coordinators with a lot of experience be it in administrative affairs, project management and I got to live the Chinese culture. We get to see different things from what we heard since childhood. Just working with them is like you traveled to China to learn about this (skills),” said Fotso, 32, who coordinates projects at the site.

“Every nation, like Cameroon aspires to emerge. So it’s an honor for us to have China and her expertise and who willingly accepted to share it with us,” added 26-year-old Koule whose main assignment is to ensure that all onsite workers are in good health and that there are no job-related illnesses.

“They (CHEC) have given us a great opportunity. Our livelihoods have improved significantly,” said Mbofris who spent seven years in China teaching the English language and now works as an interpreter with CHEC.

Ayissi said the Kribi port project is a glaring example of Cameroon’s participation in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, adding that the country is committed to unlocking the potential of interlinked production networks and value chains.

Source: Xinhua  

The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) and the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have signed a memorandum of understanding for $3.56 million in grant funding to support the development of pharmaceutical industries in West Africa.

Lamin Barrow, Managing Director of the Bank for Nigeria and Mamadou Traoré, ECOWAS Commissioner in charge of Industry and the Private Sector, signed the agreement for the Pharmaceutical Industry Development Support Project in West Africa on Wednesday.

The project’s total cost is $3.77 million, to which the ECOWAS Commission will provide $200,000 in cash and $400,000 in-kind.

The funds will support the implementation of regulations to allow duty-free access to pharmaceutical raw materials, packaging, and finished products under the ECOWAS Common External Tariff. It will also help establish an effective regional pharmaceutical regulatory ecosystem by providing technical assistance programs for regional regulatory authorities.

Commissioner Traoré said: “Local production of pharmaceuticals and biologicals has become an imperative and a regional priority, as is the provision of healthcare delivery services. The African Development Bank’s support of these priorities will help ECOWAS achieve its development objectives.”

During the signing ceremony held in Abuja, the African Development Bank’s Director General for Nigeria, Lamin Barrow said: “The COVID-19 crisis has further exposed the fragility of our national healthcare systems and posed significant disruptions to the global health and pharmaceutical supply chains. This underscores the urgency of accelerating efforts to ensure a minimum level of supply of health products.”

The project will enhance the pharmaceutical industry’s competitiveness through improved quality and product standards and help ensure that the region complies with best practices in manufacturing pharmaceutical products and supplies. It will strengthen regional training institutions and laboratories to ensure that the required skills are available to support the industry’s regional growth in a gender-sensitive and environmentally friendly manner.

In response to calls from the African Union and the pharmaceutical industry, the African Development Bank has taken a leadership role in developing and driving a continental Vision and Action Plan for a new African Pharmaceutical order. Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina announced last year that the institution would mobilize up to $3 billion to support this development.

The project will also advance the Bank’s efforts to support the harmonization of the regulatory environment for pharmaceuticals across Africa at the regional and continental levels. This, in tandem with the operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area, will deepen intra-African integration and trade, boosting regional markets.

The Bank’s Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation, Solomon Quaynor, said: “To develop the pharmaceutical industry, the African Development Bank will help to develop local production capacities to increase the market share of African (local and regional) pharmaceutical production value to 45-55% by 2030.”

The project aligns with three of the African Development Bank’s High Five strategic priorities: Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. It also advances the Bank’s Regional Integration Strategy for West Africa, and is in line with the Bank’s gender strategy, and its strategic response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The ECOWAS Commission will be the executing agency for this project, which will run for two years, starting from 2022. The West African Health Organisation will be the implementing agency.

 By APO Group

From airlines in Nigeria to shoppers in Malawi, Africans are feeling the impact of the Ukraine crisis in wrenching increases in the price of fuel, grain and fertiliser.

Global oil prices scaled decade-long highs of more than $100 a barrel shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, inflicting a hefty blow to many businesses south of the Sahara.

Both Ukraine and Russia are also major suppliers of wheat and other cereals to Africa, while Russia is a key producer of fertiliser.

The impact of the war and the West’s sanctions against the Kremlin are already starting to translate into higher prices for farm inputs and imported grain, AFP bureaus in Africa report.

For Lagos baker Julius Adewale, the crisis is a perfect storm.

Nigeria’s fragile power grid had recently been supplying just a few hours of electricity per day, forcing Adewale to turn to diesel-fueled generators for power — the cost of which has now soared.

“There is no light since yesterday and we’ve been running on gen since yesterday,” Adewale said this week, as workers stacked piles of loaves in his bakery.

“(The) cost of production has increased immensely.”

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and biggest economy, but it has little refining capacity.

The government subsidises the cost of petrol, but diesel and aviation fuel are sold at market price.

Several local airlines warned this month they were forced to cancel flights due to aviation fuel scarcities.

Diesel used to sell in Nigeria at around 300 naira (0.72 cents) a litre but now goes for 730 ($1.75) a litre.

“I don’t know how we are going to cope because 70 per cent of industries are running on diesel,” Lanre Popoola, a regional chairman of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), told local media.

“Other businesses are also running limited hours on diesel as they cannot afford to use generators all day.”

Hardship ahead

If the crisis is sustained, said Eurasia Group analyst Amaka Anku, African countries which are big importers of fuel and grain will rank among the losers, although exporters of those commodities may be among the winners.

There are also countries that are heavily indebted, such as Ghana, which will struggle with higher borrowing costs as investor risk appetite lowers, she said.

Gas producers like Tanzania, Senegal and Nigeria may benefit from Europe’s moves to end its dependence on Russian energy, said Danielle Resnick at the Brookings Institution think tank.

But, she said, the immediate challenge was hardship for African families, millions of which are already struggling to get by.

“War in Ukraine means hunger in Africa,” International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday.

High prices will for instance aggravate food insecurity in conflict-torn Ethiopia, where nearly 20 million people are in need of food aid.

– Inflation already here –

In many parts of Africa, the inflationary machine has already lurched into higher gear, AFP bureaus report.

In Kenya, a two kilogramme (4.4-pound) bag of wheat flour now sells for 150-172 Kenyan shillings (US$1.3 to US$1.5), compared to less than 140 shillings in February.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s No. 3 economy usually gets a fifth of its imported wheat from Russia and another 10 percent comes from Ukraine, according to government figures.

As for fertiliser, a 50-kilo bag that cost 4,000 shillings last year now changes hands for 6,500 shillings ($57) — a figure that is likely to increase as the planting season starts this month.

In the Ugandan capital Kampala, Ukraine’s crisis has already caused a surge in prices of soap, sugar, salt, cooking oil and fuel.

“Most of the essential commodities are produced locally but some ingredients are imported and their prices are being dictated by the shocks on international markets,” Junior Finance Minister David Bahati told AFP.

Cooking oil has risen from 7,000 shillings per litre ($1.94) in February to 8,500 shillings ($2.4) and a kilo of rice from 3,800 to 5,500 shillings, according to Kampala retail shops.

“My family of four people spend an average of 5,000 shillings to cater for food and other necessities but this is no longer enough… I now spend more than 10,000 shillings,” Ritah Kabaku, 41, a shop assistant in Kampala, told AFP.

‘Victims of war’

Wary of Ukraine-fueled inflation, Mauritius’ central bank has raised its key interest rate to two percent — its first hike since 2011.

“It is unfortunate that as the sky cleared after Covid 19, more clouds appeared,” Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said in a televised speech.

In Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, prices for fuel, cooking oil, construction materials and electricity have shot up.

“A week ago, the 20-litre jerrycan of cooking oil was $25, today it’s about $50. A litre of gasoline was $0.64 and today it runs about $1.80 — it’s crazy,” said Mohamed Osman, a trader.

In southern Africa, bread and cooking oil prices in Malawi have shot up by an average 50 percent.

“This war doesn’t concern us and it is not right that we should be paying such a high price,” Fatsani Phiri, an auditor who was buying bread in the capital Lilongwe.

“We cannot always be victims every time there is a war somewhere in the world.”

Source: AFP