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20, January 2023

Factors that will continue to shape the Cameroonian remittance market in 2023 ⁰

In the last decade, the cross-border remittance market has undergone tremendous changes evolving from traditional offerings to much faster, easier and safer payment methods, thanks to digital disruptors.

With the rise of globalization and migration, followed by the demand for cross-border payments solutions, fintech organizations’ have changed the landscape by developing digitally enabled solutions for their consumers.

The shift is positively impacting the financial industry and improving the lives of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the first-half 2022, remittance inflows in Cameroon, via WorldRemit, totaled £75 million GBP, boosted by the rapid need for digital remittances worldwide following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, it is projected the remittance industry will continue to evolve with innovation in the fintech sector at a quick pace. This will take place amidst an increasingly challenging economic environment with a continued increase in the cost of living and inflation across the globe.

With these factors in mind, remittance expert Imane Charioui, Director of Francophone Africa and Middle East, WorldRemit, shares some insights on what to expect in the Cameroonian remittance market in 2023.

Cashless transactions and mobile money

Mobile technology is a global game changer for remittances because it removes the need for costly brick-and-mortar branches. In Cameroon, digital infrastructure has evolved considerably with mobile acting as a key enabler and the primary channel for connectivity. For instance, the mobile population coverage rate for 2G is 96%, 85% for 3G and 53% for 4G.

In 2020 the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) revealed that Cameroon alone held 64.8% of all active accounts of The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). This accounted for almost three times the number of mobile money accounts held by the Congolese (7.1 million) and almost ten times the number of accounts held by the Gabonese (2.7 million).

Additionally, Cameroon also confirmed its leadership over CEMAC’s electronic payment market by recording the highest number of transactions at 73.13%.

The increased public engagement with technology, and uptake of digital tools, are positive steps for Cameroon’s growing digital economy and the future of its fintech ecosystem in 2023.

Increased use of Money Transfer Operators (MTOs)

As online money transfer tools become more and more a part of people’s lifestyles, online money transfers will continue to grow steadily in 2023. However, the likelihood of further adverse international developments persisting into 2023 is high and the pace of remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa may ease to 3.9% from the 16.4% advance of 2021.

This is due to the economic outlook dimming and real wages expected to contract in the United States, and Europe where higher inflation is expected to impact areas that Cameroonian migrants reside. However, food affordability and the deterioration of real incomes across African states still indicate the need for financial support from diaspora.

As such, MTOs such as WorldRemit will continue to provide essential services to many Cameroonian families in need. ”At WorldRemit, 90 percent of money transferred to Cameroon is sent within minutes. This eliminates long wait times and complexities of traditional remittance processes. The recipients secure their money through WorldRemit’s suite of options designed for different services such as via trusted banks, mobile money, and cash pick-up locations,” said Imane.

MTOs will continue to help communities in different countries connect with their loved ones through financial support. Remittances are the backbone of many developing nations’ economies, and MTOs will keep playing their part in increasing the remittance flow.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) for WorldRemit

1, January 2023

Football: Clarence Seedorf says Onana will return to play for the Indomitable Lions ⁰

Former Cameroon coach Clarence Seedorf believes Andre Onana will rescind his decision of retiring from international football. Seedorf thinks the Inter goalkeeper will make international U-turn

Onana retired from Cameroon days after being kicked out of World Cup camp. The 26-year-old was accused of indiscipline by coach Rigobert Song

Onana retired from Cameroon duty in December, less than a month after he was kicked out of the Indomitable Lions’ World Cup camp, following a clash with coach Rigobert Song.

However, Seedorf, who handled Cameroon at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, feels the 26-year-old Inter Milan goalkeeper will make a return to the national team at some point.

“Onana is a great goalkeeper, an intelligent, curious man, who takes an interest and believes in himself. I think he will return to play for the national team,” Seedorf told Gazzetta dello Sport.

Onana played in Cameroon’s World Cup opener against Switzerland when they lost 1-0 before he was dropped for disciplinary reasons. Reserve goalkeeper Devis Epassy took his place as they fought from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Serbia and then stunned Brazil 1-0 in their final group match.

The goalkeeper claimed to have “always behaved in a way to lead the team to success in a good manner,” but Song was adamant that he needed to send a strong message to one of the Indomitable Lions’ star players.

Onana had made 34 appearances for his country, featuring in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations as well as the 2022 World Cup, since making his debut in a friendly against France in May 2016.

Onana had earlier in the week explained how he has put his woes with Cameroon behind him and was eyeing success with Inter.

“This is where I belong, I think that’s obvious,” he said. “I’ll always be a fan of my Cameroon, but now I’m only focused on Inter and I want to win every trophy with the Nerazzurri. With the team that we have, I think that’s possible.”

Onana is now fully focused on club duties with Inter Milan who are preparing for their Serie A return against leaders Napoli on January 4.

Source: Goal.com

30, December 2022

Football: Cristiano Ronaldo signs for Al Nassr football club in Saudi Arabia ⁰

Cristiano Ronaldo on Friday signed for Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia, the club announced, in a deal believed to be worth more than 200 million euros.

The 37-year-old penned a contract which will take him to June 2025.

“I can’t wait to discover a new football league in a different country,” said the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus player.

The Portuguese star was pictured on the Al Nassr Twitter feed holding a blue and yellow shirt with his favoured number seven printed on the back.

Source: AFP

25, October 2022

Resistance sole way to free Southern Cameroons, defeat enemies of Ambazonia ⁰

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima says resistance is the sole way to liberate Southern Cameroons and defeat the occupying forces. The Ambazonian front line figure called on all Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora to unite around the Southern Cameroons struggle against occupation.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a message to a Southern Cameroons think tank in Scotland on Monday and emphasized the need for unity in line with the ideology of the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders and said the only way to liberate the Federal Republic of Ambazonia from the Biya Francophone regime, defeat the enemies, and restore grandeur is through resistance.

“If there is anything that has greatly delayed our trip to Buea, it stems from divisions,” said Dabney Yerima. The exiled Ambazonia leader furthered that Yaoundé’s power lies in rifts among Southern Cameroonians, Southern Cameroonians should therefore unite, since unity will serve as a firm fortress for the people of Ambazonia and will guarantee progress toward freedom.

He urged the Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero to boycott and criminalize any activity with the Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé and show respect for religious institutions and clerics.

Vice President Dabney Yerima likewise voiced support for Amba fighters in Ground Zero, who have been dealing with French Cameroun terrorism since 2016.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from the Cameroon Concord News London Bureau

16, October 2022

African Union calls on Ethiopia rivals to ‘recommit’ to peace ⁰

The African Union on Sunday called on the warring parties in Ethiopia’s conflict to “recommit” to peace talks, as violence intensifies in the embattled Tigray region.

The city of Shire in northwest Tigray has been bombarded for several days in a joint offensive by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops, with civilian casualties reported in the push against rebels from the war-torn region.

The International Rescue Committee, an aid organisation delivering relief to stricken Tigray, announced on Saturday that one of its staff was among three civilians killed in an attack in Shire.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has joined the United States and other Western powers in expressing grave concern over the worsening violence and its impact on civilians, and called on both sides to negotiate peace.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, and the Tigrayan authorities, have accepted an AU invitation to talk, but negotiations scheduled to start last weekend in South Africa failed to take place.

AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat said the escalating violence was of “grave concern”.

“The Chairperson urges the Parties to recommit to dialogue as per their agreement to direct talks to be convened in South Africa by a high-level team led by the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa, and supported by the international community,” he said in a statement issued on Sunday, but dated Saturday.

Talks were to be mediated by the bloc’s Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, South Africa’s former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.

Diplomats suggested logistical issues were partly to blame for the much-anticipated meeting not going ahead.

The latest fighting came as US special envoy Mike Hammer arrived in Addis Ababa to push for an end to nearly two years of war between Ethiopia, its allies, and rebels led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Fighting resumed in August after a five-month lull, dimming hopes of settling a conflict that has killed untold numbers of civilians, and been marked by atrocities by all sides.

The return to war also halted desperately-needed aid into Tigray, where the UN says millions of people have been forced from their homes, and hundreds of thousands are close to famine.

The conflict erupted in November 2020 when Abiy — a Nobel Peace Prize winner — sent troops to topple the TPLF, the ruling party in Tigray he accused of staging attacks on army camps.

The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition for decades before Abiy came to power in 2018.

Source: AFP

31, August 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Will schools ever start in rural Southern Cameroons? ⁰

It is over five years since schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions were shut down because of a dispute between the country’s English-speaking minority and the Yaounde government over key issues the government was reluctant to address.

English-speaking Cameroonians had complained of marginalization in 2016, and many held that the quality of education in the two English-speaking regions was deliberately being watered down as the government posted French-speaking Cameroonians to teach English-speaking Cameroonians in French even when the students could not understand French.

Lawyers, who were also at the forefront of things, also complained about deliberate attempts by the government to erase the common law system from Cameroon. All peaceful attempts where completely ignored by the Yaounde government which has always held that only brutality and military violence could address any socio-political difference in the country.

As the government sought to change things by force, matters only got worse, as schools and universities were shut down and ever since, many rural schools are still closed, with armed separatists enforcing a shut-down which has been condemned all over the world.

In certain cases, separatist forces which are not controlled by any real chain of command, even undressed students who wanted to go to school. They have been accused of burning schools, intimidating students, and killing teachers in rural parts of the English-speaking parts of Cameroon.

There are thousands of children who have been robbed of a bright future due to a conflict they know nothing about. Those who call the shots among the separatists are incapable of calling off the school boycott as some rogue elements have transformed the school boycott into their stock-in-trade.

Some people or groups of people are permanently ensuring that schools in the two English-speaking regions of the country do not resume. Each year, when its is time for the resumption of the school year, a school is burnt down as a strategy to sow fear in the minds of many parents who may want to send their children to school.

Last week, a dormitory in the Presbyterian Secondary School in Mankon in the Northwest region was burned down by some armed men who sent out the students from the dormitory before setting the structure ablaze.

The incident bore the hallmarks of the separatists who, for five years, have insisted that children should be kept at home, a strategy which has not given the revolution a good name.

The government, for its part, has not changed its strategy. Despite calls from people around the world for a negotiated settlement, the Yaounde government has continued to operate as if the education of those children is not important.

From every indication, schools in rural parts of the two English-speaking regions of the country will remain closed as separatists marauding the streets of small towns and villages are spreading word that parents should keep their children at home again this year, making it six straight years that these children have not been to school.

If things must change in this regard, the government must make some painful decisions and one of such decisions will be bringing the separatists to the negotiating table so that children who never bargained for what is happening to go back to school as a means of guaranteeing them a better life in the future.

By Dylan Tambe Ashu

11, August 2022

Ambazonia fighters kill 2 Cameroon gov’t soldiers in Bamessing ⁰

At least two soldiers have been killed by separatist fighters in Cameroon’s war-torn Anglophone region of Northwest, army sources said on Wednesday.

Separatist fighters ambushed and attacked the soldiers in Bamessing locality of the region on Tuesday, killing two on the spot and wounding another, according to two army officials who wish to remain anonymous in the region.

The attack was carried out by a group of separatist fighters who had earlier suffered casualties in a repelled attack by the military in the region.

Separatist fighters have been clashing with government forces in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017.

Source: Xinhuanet

23, July 2022

Biya family: Who is really in charge in Yaoundé? ⁰

Images of Franck Biya are draped over walls of strategic locations in the run-up to President Emmanuel Macron’s visit in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé. Cameroon has only one tradition embedded in her politics when a foreign head of state is expected in the country- the president’s portrait with the visiting leader.

But events in Yaoundé are now telling a different story which many have painted as the road to a civil war. The message is clear, Paul Biya is the outgoing President and the corrupt and ill-equipped eldest son of Mr. Biya is the President-In-Waiting.

French speaking Cameroonians are about to enter one of the stranger transition periods in their history. It is now evidently clear that Franck Biya is President Paul Biya’s anointed heir outside the ruling CPDM political structure.

Given this Beti Ewondo Francophone political arrangement, there are two burning questions on everybody’s mind: Who is really in charge in Yaoundé? And will this fake transition as many Francophone Cameroonian pundits have dubbed it, lead to civil war?

There are under-the-table talks in Yaoundé that President Emmanuel Macron visit to Cameroon is intended to show the Francophone political elites that the Biya family plans to remain in charge.

“The Franck Biya posters in Yaoundé signal a family planning to continue being a leader” a senior political figure from the Far North region told Cameroon Concord News

Cameroon is not Gabon or Togo. So Franck Biya will not have the accoutrements of power. Franck Biya will not have formal control over the Cameroonian military and security services, and he will eventually escape to France.

Those who are pushing the Franck Biya For President agenda are simply ignoring the fact that Southern Cameroonians already have guns!! It needs only the Far North or the Bamilekes to do same and Cameroon will be worse than Rwanda.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

21, July 2022

Cameroon mega star, Ekambi Brillant in poor medical condition, needs help ⁰

Veteran Cameroonian musician Ekambi Brillant is down with an unknown illness as new reports from Douala suggest.

Elvis Kemayo recently paid him a visit, raising awareness of his condition.

Ekambi Brillant was popular in the 70s, 80s and early 90s and remains one of the greatest song writer and composer Cameroon as a nation has ever known.

Ekambi recorded a sea of greatest hits including Minya ma bobe, Moussoloki, Elongi, Cameroon Airlines and Yeye Yeah Massoma.

Cameroon Concord News senior entertainment correspondent Diamond Esoh commenting on the Ekambi situation opined that “It appears the story of riches to rags has become a major issue in the Cameroon music industry as Ekambi is yet another musician in dire need of medical and financial assistance.”

Unconfirmed reports in Douala say the renowned artist may have suffered some sort of paralysis.

By Rita Akana in Douala

20, July 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen kidnapped Rangers of Bafut club president ⁰

Armed gunmen on Monday kidnapped the president of Rangers of Bafut Football Club based in Bamenda, Neba George.

He was reportedly kidnapped during preparations for a trip to Bertoua for an encounter against Gazelle FC of Garoua.

A press statement from the football club simply said “Our president, Mr. Neba George was kidnapped by separatists in Bafut. We have informed the Fecafoot. We are really concerned about the situation of our president.”

Notwithstanding the situation, Fecafoot maintained the scheduling of the match for undisclosed reasons and it is now up to the commission of homologation and discipline to decide.

By Fon Lawrence