Cameroon organized a workshop in collaboration with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in the capital on Tuesday to lay the groundwork for the implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

Government officials said the two-day workshop gives Cameroon the opportunity to assess what the country will benefit from the agreement.

“We are talking about a continent of over 1 billion people and there are 25 million of us in Cameroon. The advantages of the free trade zone are so many for an economy like ours. It is necessary for us to work day and night to be part of the advantages and not disadvantages. We are confident that it will bring a lot of prosperity and stability to our economy,” Cameroon’s Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, told reporters.

The workshop, the first of its kind, brings together more than 100 stakeholders from the private sector, academia and civil society to evaluate Cameroon’s readiness to ratify the agreement.

Twenty two African nations have already ratified the agreement, the minimum threshold expected to approve the deal among the 55 members of the African Union.

According to ECA, AfCFTA represents a potential market of 1.2 billion consumers today, and nearly 2.5 billion in 2050, and is a powerful lever to stimulate exports, industrialization, job creation and economic diversification of the African continent.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroon’s four cement producers achieved a total turnover of XAF191.9bn (US$330.4m) in 2018, according to sources in the country’s tax administration. 

Market leader Dangote Cement Cameroon sold 1.2Mta of cement, resulting in a sales figure of XAF86.4bn. 

LafargeHolcim-owned Cimencam increased its revenues to XAF70.7bn following the inauguration of its new 0.5Mta Nomayos plant in Yaoundé suburb on 2 April 2019. 

Cimaf Cameroon, part of the Morocco-based Adoha group, achieved a turnover of XAF28.5bn, ahead by Medcem Cameroon (owned by the Turkey-headquartered Eren Holding), which had sales of XAF6.3bn.

Published under Cement News

Cameroon Inter-Employer Group (Gicam) met the Association of credit institutions’ professionals (Apeccam) on April 4 in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital, to discuss the new exchange regulation within the Cemac region.

Celestin Tawamba, President of Gicam, took this opportunity to express his concern about the difficulties faced by economic operators in accessing foreign exchange, in Cameroonian banks.

“For 71% of employers who are members of Gicam, access to foreign exchange is a major concern,” he said, denouncing banks that make “indecent proposals” to economic operators at usury rates.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Central Bank of CEMAC States Beac which some commercial banks say is the cause of this currency shortage. In response, Beac reassures about the availability of foreign currency and says the situation is the result of a strict enforcement of rules on foreign exchange transactions; rules that some banks did not fully follow.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The African Development Bank last week hosted the launch of the Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) at is Headquarters in Abidjan,  Côte d’Ivoire. The Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF)  is a multi-donor Trust Fund to scale up interventions in urban development and drive sustainable growth in cities across the African continent.

The UMDF is designed to improve resilience and better manage urban growth, by means of tailored technical assistance to municipalities and urban entities in the areas of urban planning and mobility, project preparation, and municipal governance and finance. UMDF will focus on areas identified as being detrimental to accessing finance, the main ones being the preparation, management and implementation of bankable projects by municipalities, updates to master plans, the review of the regulatory environment to facilitate access to market financing and the use of tools to manage and deliver municipal services.

During the presentation session, initial partners presented their stake in the fund and their focus areas for sustainable investment in urban development. Stefan Atchia Officer in charge of the UMDF at the Bank, presented how the fund would provide integrated city planning expertise and technical support for municipalities. Aage Jorgensen, Program Manager at the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) spoke on priority interventions in Africa in the fund’s focus area of climate change resilience. Patrick Heinrichs, Export Finance Manager of the Wallonia Export Investment Agency (AWEX), presented the importance of a combined academic and technical approach to solve the challenges of urban development in Africa.

The open discussion which followed the presentations was centred on how the UMDF could assist cities in drafting their master plan for urban development, support dialogue between national and local governance structures and create learning opportunities between cities. The first oversight meeting between the partners was held after the launch event to discuss practical implementation of the fund and eligibility of cities for assistance by the UMDF.

The event was attended by a Belgian delegation and senior representatives of African municipalities and private sector delegates with a stake in urban development in African cities. It was also attended . Mr Hugues Chantry, the Belgian Ambassador in Cote d’Ivoire, and senior officials of the African Development Bank.  The launch was considered as a timely response to the challenges of rapid urbanization in Africa and to the strong need for integrated city planning expertise.

By Bamba Gaoussou

Unlike other countries within the Cemac area, Cameroon’s current balance deficit worsened during the past year. According to recent data from the Bank of Central African Countries (Beac), the country’s deficit grew to 3.4% over the period, against 2.5% in 2017.

Such a situation is driven by a negative trade balance performance of XAF271.7 billion in 2018 compared to XAF117 billion, according to Beac projections. A negative trend is also observed in Equatorial Guinea with deficit reaching 8.5% of GDP in 2018 against 7.1% in 2017.

Deficit narrowed in Gabon (2.7% in 2018 compared to 5.0% a year earlier); Chad (4.2% after 7.1% in 2017) and the Central African Republic (8.0% after 8.5% in 2017). The rate returned to surplus in Congo (+2.6% against -2.5% in 2017).

Overall, CEMAC’s external accounts show a decrease in the current account deficit, including official grants, from 4.2% of GDP (XAF2,057.9 billion) in 2017 to 3.1% in 2018 (XAF1,622.5 billion).

“This improvement (for the region) would result from a 49.1% increase in the trade balance surplus to XAF6,436.9 billion in 2018, thanks to a larger increase in exports (+20.4%) than in imports (+6.3%),” explains the Beac.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Cameroon’s capital, Yandé recovered by 0.8 percent in February 2019 after a 0.5 decline the previous month, the National Statistics Institute (INS) revealed.

Such a bounce back, INS mentions, was motivated by an increase in the prices of food by 2.8 percent after a 1.7 percent drop in January 2019; Furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house (+0.4 percent after a steady trend in Jan); apparel and footwear (+0.2 percent after -0.2 percent). Alternatively, the prices of housing, water, gas, electricity and other fuels fell over the period (-0.2 percent after +0.3 percent in the previous month).

Monthly surge in food prices in Yaoundé is largely due to the increase in prices of fruit (+14.7 percent after -2.2 percent), vegetables (+6.1 percent after -1.8 percent), oils and fats (+2.9 percent after +0.8 percent), fish and seafood (+1.2 percent after -0.1 percent), and to a lesser extent meat (+0.3 percent after +0.3 percent).

Fruit prices are rising, driven in particular by higher prices of watermelons, pineapples, avocado and lemon. Higher vegetable prices come from the increase in prices of fresh tomatoes, fresh okra, okok leaves, etc.

Increase in the price of fish and seafood is mainly due to the increase in the prices of frozen sea bass (+0.3 percent), fresh sea bass (+1.3 percent), fresh carp (+2.5 percent), frozen captain (+5.0 percent) and frozen African sea catfish (+11.6 percent). “Also, prices of bread increased by 0.1 percent and those of imported popular rice by 1 percent,” INS says, as reported by Business in Cameroon.

Source: Devdiscourse

On Tuesday this week, Cimencam (LafargeHolcim group) officially inaugurated the new Nomayos cement plant. The ceremony was carried out under the patronage of his Excellency Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon.

The grinding plant has a capacity of 0.5Mta and was constructed by CBMI of China. According to Benoît Galichet, CEO of Cimencam, this new production unit is the first step in the transformation of Cimencam into a “new Cimencam.”

Benoît Galichet added that, the Nomayos plant allows this cement producer to “get closer to the promising markets” of the central, southern and eastern regions, and then to draw take advantage of the opportunities offered by neighbouring countries such as the Central African Republic.

Lafarge also operates an integrated plant in the country at Figuil and another grinding plant at Douala, bringing the company’s cement capacity up to 2.1Mta.

Source: CementNews

Freight transport between Cameroon and the Central African Republic via the border city of Garoua-Boulaï, western part of Cameroon, resumed March 28 after about a month of suspension.

The good news is owing to a decision by Central African rebels to break camp at that border they blocked since March 3 to protest against the appointment of the new Prime Minister in their country. Camp was broken after a dialogue was open between parties in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Therefore, the hundreds of trucks loaded with goods, which had been immobilized for several weeks, both in Cameroonian and Central African territory, have now resumed operations.

According to official Cameroonian customs statistics, about XAF55 billion worth of Central African goods transit Cameroon each year.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Four crew members have been seized by pirates following an attack on the Contship Oak containership off the coast of Cameron in the Gulf of Guinea.

According to Maritime Bulletin, the vessel was at anchorage when pirates boarded it and kidnapped the crewmembers.

The 1,118 TEU vessel, owned by carrier Contship, then continued to the Port of Douala, Cameron, where as of April 2 it remains docked.

According to reports, the attack took place on March 30, 2019, just days after US-organised anti-piracy drills had taken place in the region.  

The Obangame Express 2019 took place on March 22, 2019, and saw 2500 naval service members, 95 vessels and 12 aircraft prepare for acts of piracy.

Several NATO members also participated, as did the US Coast Guard cutter Thetis. The exercises come after several attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, which has deteriorated into the world’s most dangerous area for commercial shipping.

According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the region suffered 201 attacks in 2018, an increase from the 180 that occurred in 2017.

The most high-profile act of piracy took place in January 2019, as the MSC Mandy was attacked 55 nautical miles off the coast of Benin, a story PTI reported on.

Source: Porttechnology.org

The investment accomplished by African Development Bank in Cameroon has reached XAF177 billion.

While speaking at a meeting with the economic operators on March 28 in Douala, African Development Bank’s (AfDB) executives opined that only 11 percent of this portfolio was directed to the private sector.

“This is a paradox given that the African Development Bank has mechanisms for private investments. Sadly, these fund vehicles are weakly deployed in Cameroon,” regretted Solomane Kone, AfDB representative in the central African country.

Due to the requirement to addressing the situation, the bank set up a strategy seeking to promote private investment in Cameroon, in order to make the sector more competitive, both nationally and regionally, as reported by Business in Cameroon.

Source: Devdiscourse