Traders in the Cameroon town of Kiossi, on the border with Equatorial Guinea, say business is suffering after the land border was closed last week ahead of November 20 elections. Equatorial Guinea says it closed the border to prevent what it calls “infiltration of mercenaries who want to destabilize the elections.” Political analysts say President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who came to power in a 1979 coup and is Africa’s longest still-serving leader, is sure to win.

Several hundred citizens from Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, most of them merchants, say they have not been able to cross the border from Kiossi, a Cameroonian border town, to Equatorial Guinea since November 3.

Dozens of heavily armed Equatorial Guinea government troops can be seen on the central African state’s side of the border.

Building material importer Dominique Essono says the troops are preventing him and many other Equatorial Guinea citizens from returning to their country to vote on November 20.

Essono said scores of businesspersons are stranded and cannot move to Cameroon from Ebebiyin, a town in Equatorial Guinea. Cameroon imports vegetable oil, wine, canned food and body lotions from Equatorial Guinea and exports building material, vegetables, tomatoes, rice and potato to Equatorial Guinea.

On October 25, Equatorial Guinea’s Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said the border was sealed to prevent from the “infiltration” of groups that may want to destabilize Equatorial Guinea’s elections.

Obiang, 80, is Africa’s longest serving leader. The former military officer serving as the 2nd president of Equatorial Guinea took power in an August 1979 coup.

He will be facing two candidates in the November 20 elections.

Esono Ondo is running for the first time while Monsuy Asumu is running for the third time. Obiang told the Pan African TV Channel Afrique Media on Monday that he will continue to develop his country and reduce poverty in rural communities if reelected.

Obiang says it is by no error that continuity is the slogan of his election campaign. He says his exceptional program is to open Equatorial Guinea businesses to the rest of the world so that by 2035, the central African state can become an economically independent emerging economy.

Owona Wolfgang, a political analyst at the University of Yaounde’s political science research center in Cameroon, says Obiang is poised for another victory, as in the past six elections when he never got less than 90% of the vote.

Wolfgang says it will not be surprising if after the elections, the aging Obiang hands over leadership of Equatorial Guinea to his son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. He says Obiang’s son is Equatorial Guinea’s vice president and a very influential member of the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, the country’s ruling party.

The opposition says Obiang’s rule is marked by persecution and torture of political opponents, corruption and sham elections, charges Obiang’s party denies.

The ruling party holds 99 of the 100 seats in the outgoing National Assembly and all 55 seats in the Senate.

Equatorial Guinea’s presidential poll was initially scheduled for April 2023. President Obiang brought it forward to November 20 to coincide with legislative, senate, and local elections.

Equatorial Guinea has an annual oil revenue of more than $3 billion, but most of its 1.5 million people live in poverty according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

Glencore Energy UK has been ordered to pay more than $ 314 million in fines after it bribed officials who worked in several African countries between 2011 and 2016. The company reportedly paid $26 million to the officials from countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, and South Sudan. Prosecutors stated that UK-based Glencore agents used private jets to funnel the cash that would fund the bribes.

According to a report from the UK government’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the money was used to guarantee top-grade access to larger cargoesand higher oil grades. The SFO brought the case against Glencore Energy UK and stated that the fine was the biggest that had ever been handed out for a corporate criminal conviction in the UK.

According to the SFO, between 2012 and 2015, an employee of the UK company and a representative from one of the Nigerian oil companies withdrew a total of $13.7 million in cash from Glencore’s Swiss cash bank. The cash was then transported on a private jet to Cameroon, where it was used to bribe officials in the country’s national oil and gas companies. Earlier in June, the conglomerate pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery at a London court. The judgment of $ 314 million was announced on Thursday and included fines, legal costs, and confiscation of the profit Glencore made from its bribes.

The United States Department of Justice launched an investigation in 2018 to examine Glencore’s compliance with US money laundering and corruption laws dating back to 2007. The query specifically highlighted concerns about the company’s dealings in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Venezuela. In 2019, UK’s SFO started its own investigation into the UK subsidiary of Glencore over what it stated as “suspicions of bribery” in Africa.

In a statement, Clare Montgomery, a representative for Glencore, said that the company regretted its actions.

“The company unreservedly regrets the harm caused by these offences and recognises the harm caused, both at national and public levels in the African states concerned, as well as the damage caused to others,” Montgomery said.

Source: OkayAfrica

Africa is a continent rich in land, water, and energy resources, with a young and fast-growing population. Already the world’s youngest continent, it is expected to grow to nearly 2.5 billion people by 2050, 80% of them in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNPD, 2019).  

Levels of human and economic development differ widely across the continent, and it is increasingly becoming clear that the opportunities on the continent are vast. Energy plays a key role in Africa’s development pathway and improving livelihoods and access to opportunities will depend crucially on the expansion of access to reliable and affordable and sustainable energy.

Africa is at a crossroads. For many of the people of this vast and diverse continent, access to affordable, clean and sustainable energy remains an aspiration. The need for better and more abundant energy is evident in many walks of life, from households relying on dirty fuels for cooking and farmers lacking energy to harvest their crops, and from health clinics struggling to power operating rooms to businesses contending with power outages. 

Over the last three decades, climate change has been adding new challenges in the form of extreme weather events, rising temperatures and more variable rainfall. We know that renewable energy can help to resolve many of these social, economic, health and environmental challenges.

Renewables are key to overcoming energy poverty, providing energy services without damaging human health or ecosystems, and enabling sustainable socio-economic development. A transition to a renewables-based energy system in Africa promises substantial gains in GDP, employment, and human welfare in each of the continent’s constitutive regions.

 Although Africa’s share of global renewable energy investments and capacity installations remained relatively small over the past decade, the continent can draw on a vast wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal resource potential. 

Falling costs are increasingly bringing renewables within reach, whether through grid extension, mini-grids or stand-alone applications. A profound energy transition centred on renewables and energy efficiency is increasingly understood as not only feasible but essential for a climate-safe future in which sustainable development prerogatives are met.

 Indeed, a sophisticated understanding of the intimate connections between the energy system and the economy at large is essential in designing policies, along with an appreciation of the ways in which both are linked to the world’s ecosystems and human wellbeing. 

Experience around the world gives us a strong sense of what it takes to succeed. According to an IRENA report, African policymakers can draw on a wealth of experience in planning, financing, and deploying renewable energy projects, and integrating them into energy systems. But as is true in other parts of the world, it is critical that each African country play to its own strengths and understand its weaknesses, whether in terms of its industrial capacities, commodity and trade dependencies, or skills base. 

Countries can and must learn from each other. Intra-regional and broader international cooperation can overcome drawbacks any individual country may face on its own. A wide-ranging challenge demands a comprehensive policymaking approach. The IRENA report illuminates the array of policy areas that may contribute to a successful energy transition. But rather than picking policies selectively, they all need to be part of an overarching, holistic framework that is more than just the sum of its parts. The growing discourse on a Green Deal in places like Europe and North America has spotlighted the importance of a bold, systemic approach. 

A Green Deal will of necessity look different in Africa, tailored to its own circumstances. But the key point is its transformative nature: pursuing synergies in resolving pressing social, economic, health, and environmental issues, recognising that because market-driven approaches alone will not suffice strong public interventions are needed and placing people at the centre of the transition. 

The objectives of Africa’s energy transition are far-reaching economic diversification; the creation of decent jobs; environmental stewardship and climate resilience; and universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy. 

This is also in view of the expectedly vast impact of climate change on the African continent, the effects of which are already beginning to be felt right now, and in view of the enormous potential for industrial development, job creation and environmental management that more widespread access to sustainable energy sources brings. 

Given the importance of renewable energy, the African Union’s Agenda 2063 clearly establishes the links between energy and industrialisation (AUC, 2015). However, access to reliable electricity and clean, modern cooking in Africa remains far behind most other parts of the world. With an electrification rate of 46%, 570 million people in 2019 were still without access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa, while only 16% had access to clean cooking (IEA, IRENA et al., 2021). 

This situation reinforces socio-economic inequalities and impedes progress in widening access to basic health services, education, and modern machinery and technology – thus, ultimately, to socioeconomic opportunities. Africa holds significant energy resources. Fossil fuels represent around 40% of African exports, with countries such as Algeria, Angola, Chad, Nigeria and the Sudan being highly dependent on them as a source of revenue. 

Along with other raw materials which continue to constitute a substantial proportion of African countries’ exports, fossil fuels provide revenue but also reinforce commodity-dependence. In the context of a low-carbon future, these and other fossil fuel dependent countries will be increasingly vulnerable to the risks of stranded assets, in addition to the already serious effects of price volatility for internationally traded commodities. 

Renewable energy, by contrast, offers African economies prospects for economic growth, cost-effective technologies to expand energy access and quality of access, and industrial development along new value chains, with substantial, local job creation potential. 

Energy development will also have a critical influence on Africa’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and its lingering impacts. Recovery from the pandemic heightens the importance of placing sustainable development at the core of broader economic development and industrialisation strategies.

This must include increased efforts and investment to broaden access to energy in vital sectors such as health and education, and the use of recovery-related policy measures and investments to hasten the wider structural shift toward sustainable energy as a pillar of resilient economies and societies (IRENA, 2020a). 

By Dylan Tambe Ashu

Culled from RENEWABLE ENERGY MARKET ANALYSIS by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Cameroon’s customs collected CFA564 billion in revenues as of August 31, 2022. Over the same period last year, the revenue was CFA543 billion, down 3.9% or CFA21 billion.

The higher amount in 2022 is the result of the technological innovations recently implemented by the customs administration to optimize the mobilization of resources. An example is the “Cosmos” app that now enables better tracking of non-cleared vehicles. Another app called “portrans.cm” allows authenticating the clearance slip of the vehicle applying for registration. This reduces the chances of fraudsters and saves the customs revenue that was lost due to fraud.

Moreover, the special “Halcomi III” (Stop Illegal Trade) teams cover the whole territory to make up for any shortcomings in physical customs controls. For 2022, the Directorate General of Customs targets CFA863.9 billion, 1.4% (+CFA11.6 billion) more than 2021. Achieving this goal will require the mobilization of CFA299.9 billion for the rest of the year. “Strategies will be outlined […], to achieve, or even exceed, the annual revenue target,” says the customs administration.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The government of Cameroon has announced a decrease in the price of bagged cement. The drop comes in view of the country’s increasing cement production capacity, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

As a result, the price of a bag of 42.5 R-grade cement will fall to XAF4800 (US$7.26) from XAF5100 in Douala and from XAF5400 to XAF5100 in Yaoundé.

In terms of 32.5 R-grade cement, in Douala, the price will decrease to XAF4100 from XAF4600 while in Yaoundé the drop will be from XAF4900 to XAF4400.

Source: Cement News

Cocoa exports during the 2021-22 campaign in Cameroon generated a total of CFA288.7 billion in revenue, according to data from the national cocoa coffee office (ONCC). This sum, collected by the 38 active exporters identified over the period, is largely higher than the profit made by producers. This means that producers, who are the real workforce of the sector, benefit less than others.

This problem is also observed on the global market. The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) reported that the annual turnover of the global cocoa industry reaches $100 billion, but only $2 billion (2%) goes to producers. Chocolate manufacturers reap the largest share with 35% of the turnover, while the remaining is shared between the grinding industry and transporters.

During the 2012-13 campaign, for example, at a time when the farm gate price was close to CFA1,500 per kg in Cameroon, local cocoa farmers sold about CFA250 billion of beans, according to ICCO data. However, during the same period, the global sector generated a total of CFA4,500 billion, said Jean-Marc Anga, then ICCO executive secretary, during the 2013 edition of the Cameroonian cocoa festival (Festicacao 2013).

To boost revenue for producers, the major producing countries on the continent such as Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon launched with the European Union (EU), the world’s largest importer of cocoa beans, an initiative called Cocoa Talks. It is presented as a dialogue on sustainable cocoa production.

 “Sustainability means protecting the environment. But, sustainability also means the survival of producers […] Sustainability rhymes with the protection of the environment, the prohibition of child labor, and ultimately, the prosperity of producers. That is what we want from this discussion,” said Minister Mbarga Atangana, at the opening of the Cocoa Talks on November 18, 2021, in Yaoundé.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroonian authorities say record flooding on its western border with Nigeria has killed at least six people, washed away homes, and destroyed thousands of tons of food meant for export.

In a video circulated on social media platforms by Widikum council officials, civilians asked the Cameroon government to help clear the road of earth, mud and stones to enable them to leave Widikum.

Among the merchants is Paul Okafor, a Nigerian who buys palm oil and vegetables from Widikum to sell in his country. He said floods and landslides have blocked him in Widikum for five days, and no vehicle has been able to leave or enter because flood waters have covered roads and landslides are pulling down hills on roadsides.

Okafor said the vegetables and tomatoes he bought are beginning to rot, and Widikum vegetable farmers are complaining that their harvest is decaying.

Andoh Stanilos, the mayor of Widikum district, acknowledged that his council staff shared the videos. He said floods that triggered landslides killed six people, left hundreds homeless, and destroyed homes and warehouses.

“The floodplains overflooded and completely swept off houses,” he said. “At the moment I speak, there are over 55 people who are without something to eat. The council is trying to mobilize some resources, so I send this SOS to the government and people of goodwill to come to the assistance of persons who are destitute now.”

The floods destroyed a 36-meter-long bridge on the River Momo, keeping hundreds of merchants and commuters stranded on both sides of the river. Momo, an administrative unit where Widikum is found, is a production basin for palm oil, maize, potato, tomatoes and vegetables.

Cameroon’s National Observatory on Climate Change last month predicted that floods and landslides would hit many Cameroonian towns and villages including Widikum.

Forghab Patrick, deputy director general of the observatory, said homes built in flood-risk areas made the situation even worse.

“People build in marshy areas,” Patrick said. “What happens? Water cannot circulate correctly because the houses block even the waterways and at the end of the day, those living in those homes are all exposed.”

The government said it is educating people to stop settling on risk zones, but has not said if it will provide the food and water-hungry victims are asking for.

Source: VOA

Yves Michel Fotso, the son of the late Cameroonian billionaire, Victor Fotso doubly sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzlement of public funds during his time as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Camair-Co, the national airline may soon be a free man, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt from reliable sources in Etoudi.

He was arrested on December 1, 2010 and sentenced to life after it was revealed that a report of the judiciary inquiry, which was ordered by the Mfoundi High Court in Yaoundé, into the racket of acquisition of the ill-fated Presidential plane “Albatross”, had incriminated him.

Fotso was appointed the Administrator-General Manager of CAMAIR in 2000.

By Rita Akana with Intel files