Fitch Ratings, an international financial rating agency has hinted that two factors could affect Cameroon’s public policy. The international rating agency revealed that the two issues include “Who will succeed the 84 year old President of the Republic Paul Biya and the Southern Cameroons Crisis. For the agency, these two factors could affect the country’s public policy. The Fitch Ratings analysis echoed an earlier revelation by the New York Stock Exchange.

Cameroon was also the subject of a meeting of the Citigroup Inc., a major financial institution based in the United States. During the meeting, the financial experts of Citigroup analyzed Cameroon from a political and economic point of view and concluded that the impact of the barbaric acts of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram in the northern part of Cameroon has real implication on the political stability of the country.

The uncertainty of Cameroon has always been around what will happen on the political front after Mr Biya, especially since the country has no post of vice-president. Political commentators have little insight into how any potential political succession could play out. However, on a positive note, there seems to be a little more confidence in Cameroon, and constitutional means to solve the problem of succession are now well in place, even if political issues remain unresolved.

The president of the so-called Senate has 120 days to organize new elections to which he cannot present himself.  The Francophone political elites have exploited the Southern Cameroons crisis and reduced Prime Minister Philemon Yang and Senator Peter Mafany Musonge to ordinary politicians not fit to govern after Biya.

Moreover, local political sentiment seems to accept that with more than 300 ethnic and tribal groups in the country there is a strong history of politically negotiated compromise in case the post-Biya elections do not lead to a clear winner.  For Fitch Ratings, the International Monetary Fund should focus on the risks posed by post-Biya and the Anglophone crisis that has already lasted for several months with far reaching consequences on the economy of the country.

By Sama Ernest