Joseph Dion Ngute, the Prime Minister of Cameroon, has told the Ministry of Finance to open up ailing state-run companies to the capital and management of the private sector next year, the African economic news agency Ecofin reported.

During a special cabinet meeting held to examine the budget and economic plan for the period 2021 to 2023, the prime minister presented guidelines to finance minister Louis-Paul Motazé on the viability of certain public companies in need of fresh financing.

Neither official named the enterprises concerned, but according to the 2019 report of the country’s Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public Enterprises (Commission Technique de Réhabilitation des Entreprises du Secteur Public et Parapublic), a number of companies are in need of private capital and the comparative dynamism that comes with private management.

The report named Camair-Co (QC, Douala) as being one of them, alongside the National Refining Company (Sonara), the Cameroon Aluminium Company (Alucam), chemicals giant Cicam, the Chantier Naval shipyards, and the national telecommunications and postal services.

The prime minister instructed the finance minister to prioritise partnerships “by identifying those public enterprises whose capital can be opened to the private sector to relieve the public treasury and increase their performance,” a statement released after the meeting said.

Presenting the main points of the 2021-2023 plan before the parliamentary budget committee on July 5, Motazé explained that to remedy the unsustainable outflow of state revenue and avoid over-indebting the country, “public enterprises may be subject to measures aimed at improving their productivity and profitability,” as this would “help the state to increase its budget revenue, improve its job provision performance, and boost economic activity in the sectors in which these enterprises operate.”

Source: Ch-aviation.com

Energy company Victoria Oil & Gas said it had terminated a gas sales agreement in Cameroon after state-backed buyer ENEO Cameroon was unable to make payments.

ENEO was majority owned by London-based investment company Actis, which had a 51% stake, with the Cameroon government owning 44% and its employees owning the remaining 5%.

Victoria Oil & Gas, through subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun, had been supplying natural gas to ENEO’s Logbaba power plant since 2015 ‘despite ENEO’s poor payment record’, it said.

ENEO’s debt stood at $16m, or $9m net to Gaz du Cameroun, at the end of June.

Gaz du Cameroun served a default notice on ENEO on 2 June that included a 30-day remedy period.

‘As we have reached the expiry of this remedy period, Gaz du Cameroun has no alternative but to terminate the gas supply agreement with immediate effect,’ Victoria Oil & Gas said.

‘The company will now rigorously pursue this unpaid debt via the legal channels available to it, including a penalty payment of three months’ fees as a result of termination as per the signed term sheet.’

Source: Sharesmagazine

MTN has appointed new CEOs for two of its West African operations, MTN Cameroon and MTN Benin. Stephen Blewett, the current CEO of MTN Benin, will take the helm at MTN Cameroon on 1 August 2020 when Uche Ofodile, the current CEO of MTN Liberia, will become the CEO of MTN Benin.

“I would like to congratulate Stephen and Uche on their appointments,” says MTN Group president and CEO, Rob Shuter. “Both are renowned for harnessing the power of people to move businesses forward. This is evident in the significant improvements in employee engagement, as well as overall performance, at MTN’s operations in Benin and Liberia in the past few years.”

Karl Toriola, VP for MTN’s West and Central Africa region, thanked Stephen and Uche for their commitment and contribution: “Under Stephen’s leadership, MTN Benin recorded double-digit revenue growth for three years running. Uche leaves a business with double-digit year-on-year revenue growth, enjoying a nine-point market share improvement against its competitor.”

Stephen has led MTN Benin, an operation of 5,5 million subscribers, for five years. He replaces Hendrik Kasteel, who left the group in March. Since then, MTN Cameroon CFO Ebenezer Bodylawson has been acting CEO, steering the operation of more than 10 million subscribers.

Source: itnewsafrica

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) on Monday approved a EUR 88 million loan to Cameroon as direct budget support to finance the country’s COVID-19 crisis response.

The loan, to the country’s COVID-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Programme (PABRC), falls under the framework of the Bank’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF) of up to $10 billion, the institution’s main channel to cushion African countries from the economic and health impacts of the crisis.

In Cameroon, the pandemic has revealed the structural weaknesses of the country’s health system and economy, particularly the limited human and financial resources allocated to the health sector.

The PABRC’s goal is to check the spread of the coronavirus, to save lives and to mitigate its adverse socio-economic effects on the Central African country, particularly on households and businesses. The programme also involves longer-term actions to build the resilience of the economy as a basis for recovery.

It will support the implementation of a health response plan to improve testing and ensure early detection and rapid management of the virus, thus reducing case fatality and improving the recovery rate. It will also support the most vulnerable in society by paying family allowances to staff of companies unable to pay social security contributions as well as distributing health kits. 

“Women play a key role in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 as wives, mothers, caregivers and community resource persons. The social protection and economic resilience actions under this support will particularly target women and the households and businesses headed by them,” Bank Acting Director General and Country Manager for Cameroon, Solomane Kone said.

Measures to sustain economic activity and safeguard employment will include value-added tax (VAT) credits to restore the cash position of enterprises as well as procuring inputs to support strategic agricultural value chains including poultry, fish, seeds and cereals. It will also support key small and medium-sized enterprises in the agribusiness, health and education sectors.

This operation complements the Bank’s $13 million special emergency project for Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa(CEMAC) member countries and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which was approved earlier this month.

COVID-19 has broken out at a time when the Cameroonian economy, the largest and most diversified in the Central Africa, is recovering from the 2014 shock caused by a sharp fall in the world prices of the country’s main export products ­– oil, cocoa and timber. Without support, the spread of COVID-19 in Cameroon could compromise the reform drive and jeopardise the progress made in recent years.

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Cameroon was identified on 6 March 2020. By 22 June, the Central African country had more than 12,041 confirmed cases, including 308  deaths and 7,740  recoveries. The Centre (Yaoundé) and Littoral (Douala) Regions have the highest number of cases, representing about 55.8% and 32.2% of the total, respectively.

Source: APO Group

Cameroon has rolled out the Cameroon Customs Information System (CAMCIS), a fully-automated electronic customs clearance system to reduce face-to-face engagement amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

CAMCIS was built by Korean engineers and is the result of a 12-year-old public-private partnership said Edwin Fongod Nuvaga, Director General of Customs.

The system is modelled on UNI-PASS, used by the Korea Customs Service, and designed to handle large volumes of data, fully automate processes and procedures as part of a paperless system.

According to customs officials CAMCIS replaces the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA ++) which has been in use in Cameroon since 2007.

Speaking at the recent launch of CAMCIS, Louis Paul Motaze, Cameroon’s Minister of Finance said the new system will significantly improve the business environment and spur profitability in the private sector by saving time and money.

The Minister highlighted the system’s operational speed, and said it will simplify import and export procedures and offer more security in the collection of customs revenue.

Customs duties and taxes are a key source of income for the government and in 2019 accounted for 14.3%.

“It is estimated that with CAMCIS, we would save a maximum number of days for our operations. Also, it will be possible to carry out customs clearance operations within one day after the validation of papers,” reads a statement issued by Cameroon Customs.

Séraphin Deffo Deffo, Chief Information Officer of CAMCIS, said the new system will guarantee traceability of all transaction, prevent fraud and corruption, enhance proper control of goods on transit, fasten procurement of customs duties and taxes, amongst others.

CAMCIS can be accessed and operated remotely using any digital device with a browser and an internet connection. It has three portals accessible to customs administration, economic operators and the general public.

Source: itweb.Africa

As expected, Cameroon’s Head of State, Paul Biya, signed an ordinance amending the 2020 Finance Law on June 3, 2020. This supplementary budget act reduced the initial budget by 11% or XAF542.7 billion in absolute terms. 

According to the Presidential ordinance of June 3, 2020, which will be submitted to and probably adopted by Parliament during the ordinary session which opens on 10 June, the State’s 2020 budget falls from XAF4,951.7 billion to XAF4,409 billion.

Apart from this drastic reduction of the previous budget, the other major fact of this amended budget -following the coronavirus pandemic that is raging throughout the world- is the creation of a special trust fund called “Fonds spécial de solidarité nationale pour la lutte contre le coronavirus et ses répercussions économiques et sociales” (Special National Solidarity Fund for the fight against the coronavirus and its economic and social repercussions).

According to official sources, this Fund, financed by contributions from development partners as well as individuals and companies, will be endowed with CFAF180 billion for the second half of 2020.

In addition to taking care of Covid-19 patients and strengthening the health system (CFAF 58.7 billion), strengthening research and local production of pharmaceutical products (CFAF 8.1 billion), this Fund will dedicate CFAF 98.7 billion to economic and financial resilience actions, and CFAF 14.5 billion to social resilience.

According to internal sources at the Ministry of Finance, the last two budgeted funds mentioned above relate to the various support measures already taken or to be taken by the government to support Cameroonian enterprises and households in the face of the ravages caused by the pandemic.

The third major fact in the amended budget of June 3, 2020, is that all the initial allocations of public administrations have been revised downwards. The administrations concerned include the Presidency of the Republic, whose envelope has been cut by about CFAF15 billion, according to a credible source. Only three institutions escaped these budget cuts. They are the National Assembly, the Senate, and Elections Cameroon, the body in charge of organizing elections. The latter is actively preparing the first regional elections in the history of Cameroon. These elections are scheduled for October 2020.

Culled from Business in Cameroon

Force majeure has been declared at two areas in Cameroon, Bakassi in the southwest and Zina-Makary in the far north, as a result of insecurity.

Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures’ (SNH) director of strategy Maurice Matanga disclosed the problems in an interview with the company’s newsletter. Matanga was discussing the country’s 2020-24 development plan and reflecting on progress made.

Production has fallen by 25% in the last few years, he said, driven by maturing fields and insecurity, which has delayed new works.

Insecurity in Cameroon’s north is likely linked to Boko Haram. Bakassi was declared to be Cameroonian territory following a dispute with Nigeria. Cameroon’s southwest is home to a separatist Anglophone movement who were reportedly involved in the killing of the mayor of Mamfe on the weekend.

China’s Yan Chang was reported to have found oil in the Zina-Makary licence in 2011 but progress has been slow because of security worries.

The development plan to 2024 is intended to maximise revenues from oil and gas. This will come from upstream operations but also increased tariffs paid to the state from the Chad-Cameroon pipeline.

The link provided $41.2 million of revenues to Cameroon during the first eight months of 2019, from $34.24mn in 2018.

Progress on SNH’s plan covering 2015-19 made good progress overall, Matanga said, despite the difficult broader outlook for the sector.

He singled out progress on gas-fired power generation in Kribi and increased supplies in Douala. Matanga went on to note SNH had increased its stake in Chanas Assurances and Cameroon Oil Terminal SA (COTSA).

The 2020-24 plan comes in less favourable conditions, with oil production continuing to decline despite SNH’s efforts. These included improving the country’s contractual framework, searching for new fields and optimising the production from existing. A new petroleum code was adopted in April 2019.

One bright spot has been LNG, with Perenco exporting 19 cargoes in 2019, an increase of seven from the previous year.

Source: EnergyVoice.Com

President Paul Biya has approved the execution of Air-France’s commercial flights from May 4 to June 30, 2020. This notice was sent to the Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority in a letter sent by the Minister of Transport Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe.

According to the letter, the flights will be executed alternatively, weekly, at the international airports of Yaounde-Nsimalen and Douala.

This agreement is however subjected to the observation of some key conditions. “Passengers on these flights will have to present a negative coronavirus screening test when boarding, and commit to self-confine at their expenses upon arrival in Cameroon,” the Minister of Transport wrote.

“Arrangements will have to be made for their monitoring in our country. The mandatory wearing of masks and compliance with barrier measures will also be imperative for these passengers and Air-France staff,” he added.

Last March, the Cameroonian government revealed that the first cases of coronavirus in the country were imported. Most of those infected had landed from Air-France’s commercial flights. Following this importation of the pandemic, Cameroon had decided to close all its borders.

With the confirmation that the President of the Republic has given his approval for the resumption of commercial flights of the French airline to Cameroon, are we moving towards the reopening of the country’s borders?

An Air France flight that landed on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, was at the center of heated debates at the Douala International Airport because of its contaminated human contents.

The flight raised fear in the Central African country by many notches, as Cameroonians fear that their fellow Cameroonians and some Frenchmen returning to the country were bearers of the dangerous Coronavirus that has disrupted economic activity across the globe and killed thousands, especially in China where the virus started.

Written by Business in Cameroon and Cameroon Concord News

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved grants worth €40.94 million for the construction of a bridge to connect Cameroon and Chad across the Logone river.

The grants, comprising a €20.785 million tranche for Cameroon and €19.215 million for Chad, were approved on 30 April 2020. The facility is from the Investment Facility for Africa under a framework agreement between the Bank Group and the European Commission.

The funds will co-finance the costs of construction of the bridge between Yagoua in Cameroon and Bongor in Chad, access roads and feasibility studies, management said in a report to the Board.

The bridge, once completed, is expected to bolster bilateral and sub-regional integration and cross-border trade, safeguard life and property during the river crossing and boost socio-cultural ties between the two countries.

“Specifically, the project aims to promote interstate trade, particularly between Cameroon and Chad, reduce travel time and transportation costs, and improve accessibility of basic services by nearby communities,” the report noted.

In addition to the Logone river bridge, other projects under the Pillar Assessed Grant or Delegation Agreement (PAGODA) include the rehabilitation of the Lome-Cotonou road, road development and transport facilitation on the Bamako-San Pedro corridor between Mali and Côte d’Ivoire and the rehabilitation of the CU2a community road section in Burkina Faso near the border with Niger.

The Bank and the European Commission are committed to co-financing development projects that tackle poverty by investing in critical infrastructure to promote seamless connectivity of transport, energy and ICT.