The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) has finalized plans to harmonize laws governing trade in the sub-region, Fatima Haram Acyl, vice-president of CEMAC said on Tuesday.

“We are going to harmonize so we make sure that somebody that is trading in Chad, in Cameroon, Central Africa Republic or anywhere in CEMAC actually operates under the same law,” Acyl told reporters as trade ministers and economic experts from the CEMAC sub-region met in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala to adopt a legislation on competition and consumers protection.

She said the intention was to intensify integration in the sub-region that already has a single market and free trade zone.

“The CEMAC is one market. We have the same people, the same currency and free movement of people. So this exercise is very critical,” Acyl said.

The new legislation will attract more foreign investors and erase unhealthy competition and consumer exploitation that has retarded trade development in the sub-region for a long time, according to Acyl.

CEMAC is made up of Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea. With a total population of about 37 million, it was established to promote cooperation and exchange among its members.

Source: Xinhuanet

Increasingly determined and bold separatists seeking the international recognition of the self-proclaimed “Federal Republic of Ambazonia” (Southern Cameroons) have created a crypto-currency which they claim is the first to be fully nation-backed.

Known as AmbaCoin, 20,082 of the Ambazonian crypto bond had already been bought, out of 100,000,000 on pre-sale as of Nov. 10. One AmbaCoin sells for 25 cents (circa 140 CFA franc) and the main initial coin offering of the crypto-currency is scheduled for Dec. 24. It is said to be backed by the “rich natural resources” of the breakaway region.

The AmbaCoin was conceived and built by a group of anonymous Anglophone separatist scholars, technocrats and developers. But it has gained the support of frontline secessionists and separatist movements. When news of the crypto-currency was made public last month, Chris Anu, who has the title secretary of state for communications & IT for the “Federal Republic of Ambazonia”, posted a sample of the crypto-currency bond on his Facebook page and said: “We are getting there folks.”

In the last five decades in Africa, especially in areas where people want to create a country of their own out of another, people have been opting to put their faith in a form of exchange other than a currency which is globally accepted. During the Nigerian civil war (1966-1970), the then self-declared Republic of Biafra adopted the Biafran pound as legal tender, abandoning the Nigerian pound it had been using before ‘independence’.

There is also a plethora of unrecognized countries in the past which came up with currencies in their efforts to be independent. The Katangas in DR Congo came up with their own franc currency in the 1960s, while the Rhodesian pound was the currency of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1970.

A statement on the website of AmbaCoin indicates that plans are already underway for the creation of a traditional fiat currency for “Ambazonia” that will be used to peg the future price of AmbaCoin. The English-speaking separatists will be keen to dissociate themselves from the Central African franc (CFA) which Cameroon uses. Both the Central and West African CFA are linked to France’s national treasury.

There’s also the practical advantage that using a cryptocurrency for now will be out of reach of the Cameroon government.

According to the developers, the biggest challenge faced by the breakaway region is that most of the resources and wealth in the area are controlled by the Francophone-led government of Cameroon, which stifles access to its assets.

“Numerous Ambazonians in the diaspora and other stakeholders who want to see a prosperous Ambazonia, are unable to help provide foreign direct investment to the Governing Council,” Amba Coin developers said. As such, they thought the best way out will be to create a bond, which will be used to raise capital to kick-start the ‘Ambazonian’ economy.

AmbaCoin, with tailored-made features, is an ERC20 crypto-currency which relies on Ethereum as the parent chain. The developers boost of the crypto’s transparency, confidentially and low transaction cost.

The crypto-currency is the latest effort by Cameroon’s Anglophone secessionists to cement the Oct. 1, 2017 symbolic declaration of independence of the “Federal Republic of Ambazonia”. The separatists have in recent times carried arms against the state of Cameroon, enforced a school boycott since October 2016 and a civil disobedience action known as ‘ghost towns’ every Monday.

In addition to the new crypto-currency, ‘Ambazonia’ has an anthem, flag and an interim government, but is yet to be recognized as a nation by any country in the world, unlike the Republic of Biafra which had a short-lived existence but was at one point was formally recognized by Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Haiti, Tanzania and Zambia.

Culled from Quartz Africa

The African Development Bank has approved a €17.96 million loan to the Republic of Cameroon to finance the construction of a Ring-Road Project in the North-West Province of the country.

The Ring Road project, which falls under phase three of the country’s Transport Sector Support Programme, aims to improve the movement of goods and people. It will also strengthen the foundations for strong and sustainable growth by promoting domestic and regional trade.

The loan for the 365 km Ring Road is the Bank’s third intervention in the implementation of this important road network rehabilitation and upgrading project. The loop road crosses five of Cameroon’s seven divisions of the North West Region and includes several links to the Nigerian border.

The project will also include institutional support for the transport sector and related works such as the development of rural roads, the rehabilitation of socio-economic infrastructure for improving women and youth living conditions.

The road project is line with the government’s Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP) 2010-2020, to build an integrated and efficient transport network at low-cost that covers the entire country opening the country to neighbouring countries to effectively enhance economic growth and reduce poverty.

The Transport Sector Support programme under which the project falls is also consistent with Pillar I of the Country Strategy Paper (CSP) 2016-2020 for Cameroon, which focuses on strengthening infrastructure to support agricultural value chains for inclusive growth and aligns with the Bank’s High 5 priorities.

Cameroon’s northwestern region has enormous economic potential, particularly in agriculture, which stands to benefit from the road. Other lucrative sectors include livestock and fisheries; tourism, particularly the spectacular natural landscapes such as the Menchum Falls, Lakes Awing, Oku and Nyos, the Mbengwi Caves.

The project is also expected to have a positive impact on transportation – greatly reducing travel time ; increase in traffic of passenger and goods; foster job creation for women and lead to work for 30,000 youths. The road will result in savings on vehicle operating costs; increase in household income and reduction in post-harvest losses.

The total cost of phase one of the Transport Sector Support Programme is estimated at €255 million (XAF 167.270 billion). It will be implemented from December 2018 to June 2024, with the Bank’s co-financing loan of €179.60 million, an Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF) loan of €42 million and the Government’s counterpart funding of €32.84 million.

At the end of August 2018, the Bank’s portfolio in Cameroon comprised 24 operations (18 national and five multinational operations) for total net commitments of €1,369.02 million. The public sector accounts for €1,218.03 million for 19 operations, while the private sector accounts for four projects valued at €150.99 million. (Transport and ICT sectors account for 63% of the portfolio).

Since 1972, when the Bank started operations in Cameroon, it has participated in financing 28 transport sector operations.

As Paul Biya seeks a seventh term in office in Sunday’s presidential election, the economic outlook for Cameroon is far from rosy. In reality businesses are shutting down as unemployment is increasing in the country’s restive Anglophone regions.

Coffee and cocoa are key economic mainstays of the country’s two English-speaking regions.

“Previously when you come to the market, you see a lot of people here. But now you don’t see anybody around. Now people are not coming to the market because they are afraid of the crisis”, said popcorn vendor Kenji Jude.

“All the customers have gone. Most of the time we come out but there is not customer to buy. So it is not making work because the customers are out, they have gone. The place is empty”, said butcher Wilfried Eron.

“Our President has been in power for 36 years and there has been no change. So everyone’s angry. I’m angry, we go to school and graduate without a job, nothing, nothing. Everyone is angry.”, said taxi driver John.

Last month the country’s employers’ group GICAM estimated that exports for both crops were down 20 percent, blaming the insecurity and the displacement of people escaping the unrest.

Fighting has become a daily occurrence in both Anglophone regions since late 2017 when separatists issued a symbolic declaration of “independence” from mainly francophone Cameroon.

AFP

The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) has created and refined a new tool to diagnose fragility in countries, taking into account their capacities and  pressures they may be under.

Called the Country Resilience and Fragility Assessment (CRFA), the tool offers a completely new method of assessing resilience and fragility using seven key criteria: political inclusiveness, safety and security, justice, the economy, social cohesion, the regional contagion effect, and climate change.

“The creation of the CRFA represents a significant advance in the assessment of fragility, which is a reality that it is not always easy to pin down or discern. By introducing, for the first time, the concepts of ‘capacities’ and ‘pressures’, this new tool brings much more rigour and effectiveness to the assessment of resilience and fragility, especially since it takes greater account of the national context,” explained Sibry Tapsoba, Director of the Transition States Coordination Office (RDTS) .

Simple, reliable and effective

Before its approval by the Bank Board on 11 September, the CRFA, was subjected to a range of checks for reliability and effectiveness, conducted under the supervision of the Transition States Coordination Office, with support from the Bank’s statistics and resource mobilization departments.

In addition to assessing resilience and fragility, the new tool should also be useful for advocacy and communication and improving and strengthening   dialogue between the Bank and its regional members. It should also help to anticipate crises, thanks to an early warning system.

“What we have here is an assessment tool of unquestionable rigour. It is easy to use, it is reliable and it is accessible to all. It brings an undeniable added value to existing techniques for the assessment of resilience and fragility,” said Riadh Ben Messaoud, from the Bank’s Resource Mobilization department.

The creation of a new fragility and resilience assessment tool is an important contribution to research efforts for greater effectiveness in the Bank’s work.

The CRFA provides better insight into every dimension of fragility, including  the less obvious, making it possible to offer the most appropriate responses in terms of building a country’s capacity and resilience.

Orange and MainOne Cable Company are pleased to announce that they have signed an agreement allowing for a major investment by Orange in the West Africa submarine cable system, MainOne. Through this partnership Orange will acquire additional capacity, thereby reinforcing its position in the African telecommunications ecosystem.

MainOne’s current cable system comprises a 7,000km submarine cable, which was launched in 2010 and has landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal. The partnership between Orange and MainOne Company will provide for the construction and installation of two new branches and stations. These will connect the cable to Dakar in Senegal and Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire by mid-2019. Orange will be the owner of the cable station in Dakar. Orange’s investment represents a major milestone for this project.

Orange Marine, a 100% subsidiary of the Orange Group, has been chosen to manage the installation of these two new branches.

Connectivity, capacity & growth opportunities

Thanks to this new cable connection, local populations will benefit from better connectivity, lower prices and access to new services. Orange will benefit from multiple Terabits per second of additional bandwidth for the development of fixed and mobile data in Africa. More specifically, this cable extension is an opportunity to improve connectivity and offer a broader range of services for both Orange Côte d’Ivoire & Sonatel. In addition, MainOne offers an alternative route that guarantees the protection of voice and data traffic passing through the other cables in the area – SAT3 WASC SAFE and ACE.

A key asset of the Group’s broadband network in Africa

Through this new partnership, Orange confirms its position as a leading player in the submarine cable market. In this role, the Group aims to develop the quality of service of its worldwide networks and facilitate the use of new digital services for end-users.

Orange has a strong commitment to the African continent, which has been at the heart of the Group’s strategy for the last few decades. The Group is investing heavily in building infrastructure and providing access to communication services over the long-term.

“Orange’s ambition on international networks is both to meet the needs of our affiliates in their interconnection with the Internet world and to increase our leadership on the international data services wholesale market. This partnership with MainOne will allow us to strengthen our presence, with new significant assets in West Africa,” said Jérome Barré, Chief Executive Officer of Wholesale and International Networks.

“The development of new digital services in Africa has fostered huge social and economic developments over the past few years. As barriers to access continue to fall with improved networks and more affordable equipment, Orange, as part of its multi-service strategy, is seeking to position itself as an important partner in the continent’s digital transformation Through this new partnership, Orange is set to secure and improve direct access to high-speed broadband services in two of its most important countries, Senegal and the Côte d’Ivoire,” said Alioune Ndiaye, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Middle East and Africa.

In her comments, MainOne’s Chief Executive Officer Funke Opeke reiterated the company’s vision for a connected West Africa: “MainOne continues to lead the digital transformation of our sub-region by investing in affordable connectivity to drive economic development. Our objective is to bridge the digital divide between and within West Africa and the rest of the world. We are committed to deepening broadband penetration across West Africa and believe our investments in technologically advanced subsea infrastructure will continue to liberalize the international bandwidth market, further support Orange and other wholesale customers, and ultimately result in improved digital services in the region”.

Orange is present in 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East and has 119 million customers (at 30 June 2018). With 5 billion euros of revenues in 2017, this zone is a strategic priority for the Group. Orange Money, its flagship mobile-based money transfer and financial services offer is available in 17 countries and has 38 million customers. Orange, a multi-services operator and key partner of the continent’s digital transformation, provides its expertise to support the development of new digital services in Africa and the Middle East.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved the Bank’s Policy on Non-sovereign Operations (NSO). The document provides the framework within which the Bank through its private sector lending window may provide financing or investment without sovereign guarantees to private and public entities that meet specific eligibility requirements on non-concessional terms.

Non-sovereign Operations (NSOs) refers to financing and investment operations that are not guaranteed by a State, covering mostly private sector transactions. They also cover non-sovereign guaranteed financing of eligible public sector enterprises, as well as financing of regional development finance institutions.

The approval of the Policy comes at a critical moment when the Bank is seeking to accelerate inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and crowd in more private sector funding for strong and inclusive growth to drive economic transformation and sustainable development in its Regional Member Countries (RMCs).

The NSO Policy will complement the Bank’s overarching 2013 Private Sector Development policy framework, notably, by defining what the Bank will do in the area of non-sovereign lending. Within this context, the objective of the Bank’s non-sovereign operations is to help accelerate the continent’s transformation through various financial support mechanisms and products including loans, lines of credit, guarantees, blended finance, equity investments and trade finance. This would enable the Bank to contribute to the sustainable economic growth and inclusive social development of its RMCs individually and jointly, in fulfilment of the Bank’s mandate.

More specifically, the Bank’s engagement in its selected non-sovereign operations will aim to maximise the catalytic impact of its limited resources, while seeking to promote inclusive growth and the gradual transition to ‘green growth’ in its RMCs. It will also help scale up financing in the Bank’s High 5 priority areas of intervention.

Under this NSO Policy, the Bank would provide financing to non-sovereign operations subject to four conditions: (i) the borrower is a private enterprise or an eligible public sector enterprise; (ii) the operations are financially sound; (iii) the operations should result in satisfactory development outcomes, including supporting or creating opportunities for private sector development; and (iv) the Bank brings additionally, which could be either financial or non-financial.

The Policy would ensure that NSOs: (i) are well-prepared with clear value added/additionally brought by the Bank; (ii) are technically, economically and financially sound, and diligently managed, adhering to high ethical norms; (iii) are environmentally and socially sustainable; and (iv) have solid prospects of generating significant development results in the RMCs in which they are implemented.

The NSO Policy does not apply to the Bank’s sovereign loans and sovereign-guaranteed loans. Such operations will continue to be governed by the relevant policies that guide the Bank Group’s public sector operations.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

Africa Oil Week (AOW) has announced their partnership with SuperReturn. This new partnership offers delegates attending SuperReturn Africa, the continent’s biggest investor conference, access to Africa Oil Week on Thursday 8 November 2018.

For operators across the continent, raising capital remains one of the biggest challenges; whether it is funding exploration and production, or financing key infrastructure projects that will secure asset monetization for the long term. Africa Oil Week, in partnership with SuperReturn Africa, will now be able to offer an enhanced environment for operators to meet prospective financial partners, as well as ministers, senior government officials, national and independent oil company executives to exchange ideas and network.

In celebration of this exciting partnership, Africa Oil Week will be welcoming SuperReturn delegates to attend AOW on Thursday 8 November. The day will kick off with a live panel debate on ‘Global Funding Strategies and M&A for the African Upstream’ broadcast on CNBC Africa. Speakers confirmed for this important panel include Samaila Zubairu, President & CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Solomon Asamoah, CEO of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund and Paul McDade, CEO of Tullow Oil.

Following the live broadcast, AOW will host two breakout finance sessions addressing some of the key issues raised in the CNBC panel in greater detail, these include: the role of global finance in the African upstream and how to drive transactions in African infrastructure.

Through this partnership, AOW looks forward to welcoming the continent’s most active energy investors who will gain unrivalled access to the opportunities spread across Africa’s upstream oil and gas markets.

“We are really excited to announce this partnership with SuperReturn Africa. This partnership will allow us to continue to provide a business and intelligence transaction platform and meeting place for Africa’s upstream oil and gas markets.“ – Paul Sinclair, Conference Director, Africa Oil Week.

Africa Oil Week will take place at the CTICC in Cape Town, South Africa on the 5 – 9 November 2018.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Oil Week.