Business

30, January 2025

Yaoundé: New MTN Cameroon CEO meets industry leaders ⁰

Wanda Matandela, MTN Cameroon’s new CEO, began his first visit to the West African country this week, joined by a delegation led by outgoing CEO Mitwa Kaemba Ng’ambi.

During this introductory tour, the MTN Cameroon delegation engaged with esteemed government officials including Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, technical advisor of Cameroon, Jean-Claude Ayem Mauger.

The group also met with the minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette LIBOM LI LIKENG, director general of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board, and Professor Philemeon Zoo Zame, director general of the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies.

The meetings gave Ng’ambi the opportunity to formally introduce her successor to senior executives and say goodbye.

Ng’ambi will begin her new post as CEO of MTN Côte d’Ivoire on March 1, 2025, the same day Matandela takes over as CEO of MTN Cameroon.

Matandela was MTN SA’s Chief Commercial Operations Officer until his current appointment.

He is a seasoned business executive with extensive expertise in ICT, financial services, and entertainment industries.

The telco executive has a BCom Accounting degree, a Masters in Information Systems from Wits, an MBA from Stellenbosch, and a Certificate in Leadership from IMD, Switzerland.

Source: iTweb Africa

27, January 2025

Yaoundé: Etoudi throws in the towel for African Development Bank presidency ⁰

Biya and his gang have decided not to put forward a candidate for the presidency of the African Development Bank, despite two profiles emerging in recent months, Africa Intelligence reported today.

Africa Intelligence also stated that Biya made the dramatic u-turn to avoid finding himself at odds with the Chadian leader.

Unity Palace had worked to promote its own candidate for the top African Development Bank seat, despite having officially supported Chad’s contender.

The regime in Yaoundé reportedly ordered Cameroonian diplomats to push for economist Albert Zeufack to take over the presidency of the African Development Bank, instead of the former BEAC governor whom N’Djamena is supporting.

As more candidates apply to take on the African Development Bank leadership role, the presidents involved have been quietly calling round to get a picture of the situation.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Africa Intelligence

24, January 2025

CEMAC Bank liquidity demand remains high despite BEAC’s reduced offerings ⁰

The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) injected CFA230 billion into the banking system in the CEMAC region on January 21, responding to a surge in demand from commercial banks. This latest liquidity operation saw requests totaling CFA258 billion, exceeding the offer by 112.5%, highlighting the growing need for central bank refinancing.

This renewed interest in BEAC’s funding facilities follows a sluggish period during which the central bank had scaled back its operations due to weak demand. However, since December 2024, commercial banks have been increasingly turning to BEAC, signaling a shift in financial activity across the region.

Bankers link this trend to rising loan demands, which have stretched their available funds. When banks face a gap between loan requests and their liquidity reserves, they typically seek refinancing from BEAC to cover the shortfall.

Source: Business in Cameroon

23, January 2025

Southwest region draws half of recovery zone investments ⁰

Of the three economically distressed zones in Cameroon the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest the Southwest has emerged as the most appealing to investors. On January 15, Finance Minister Louis Paul Motazé revealed in Buea, the region’s capital, that it is home to half of the 33 projects benefiting from tax and customs incentives tied to this special status.

“The Southwest alone accounts for over half of the projected investments, with 17 companies involved,” Motazé said. He added that 10 companies in the region have also registered under Cameroon’s 2013 private investment promotion law, securing tax benefits and creating tens of thousands of jobs.

Indeed, unlike the Far North, which is economically underdeveloped, and the Northwest, which lacks industrial capacity, the Southwest has several advantages. Key cities like Buea, Limbe, Kumba, and Tiko are near Douala, Cameroon’s economic hub. An efficient road network connects the Southwest to Douala, simplifying trade and logistics.

The Southwest also shares a border with Nigeria, Cameroon’s largest trading partner, and has modern road infrastructure supporting cross-border trade. The Far North also borders Nigeria but lacks comparable infrastructure.

Proximity to the Atlantic Ocean further strengthens the region’s economic appeal. The Southwest hosts informal maritime trade with Nigeria and includes the Cap Limboh oil terminal, which supplies crude oil to Cameroon’s national refinery (Sonara). Plans to build a deep-sea port in Limbe could further boost the region’s economic potential.

In 2019, Cameroon designated the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest as economically distressed zones, granting businesses tax breaks and other incentives for three to ten years. This initiative aligns with a broader investment promotion law from 2013, revised in 2017.

The Far North received its designation due to repeated Boko Haram attacks since 2013, which have devastated its already fragile economy. The Northwest and Southwest regions, meanwhile, have faced unrest since 2016, driven by armed conflicts between government forces and separatist groups in the country’s Anglophone regions.

Source: Business in Cameroon

22, January 2025

Douala: Gov’t targets customs corruption in new crackdown ⁰

To mark International Customs Day, Cameroon’s Ministry of Finance launched a campaign on January 14 in Douala to tackle corruption in the country’s customs service. The campaign, which will run until January 22, focuses on educating customs officers in Douala, Kribi, Limbe, and Yaoundé about the harm corruption causes to the nation’s growth.

The effort is backed by Africa Global Logistics (AGL), a key partner in the initiative. Speaking at the launch, Mama Nsounchiat, Deputy Managing Director of AGL Cameroon, underlined the need for accountability. “Corruption has no place in a system that aims for excellence. AGL is dedicated to supporting this fight by providing modern tools and innovative solutions to improve governance,” he said.

Corruption in customs has been a major issue in Cameroon for years. A 2016 report by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Conac) detailed widespread fraud and misconduct within the sector. The report estimated that between 2010 and 2015, corruption cost the public treasury CFA1,246 billion in lost revenue.

Investigators also uncovered extravagant lifestyles among customs officers. Some were found to own luxurious properties in Douala and other cities, as well as significant bank balances. One case involved a customs officer in Maroua, in the Far North region, who reportedly owned 13 villas, a five-story building, 10 plots of land, trucks, buses, and several luxury cars.

The diaspora has also expressed frustration. In December 2024, Cameroon’s liaison officer to Interpol, Richard Evina Engolo, relayed complaints from Cameroonians abroad to the country’s ambassador in France. These grievances pointed to corruption and other unethical practices by customs officers at the ports of Kribi and Douala.

Source: Business in Cameroon

20, January 2025

Brenda Biya competing with poor saloon girls as the country burns ⁰

Her dad President Paul Biya is fast exceeding his quota of killing. Roads in the country are so bad that potholes are swallowing cars, okadas and bicycles the way his ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Laurent Esso and Ngoh Ngoh are swallowing opponents of the regime.

The Delegate General for National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguele observed recently that driving from the nation’s capital Yaoundé to Mutengene in the South West region, the only way to continue the journey is over the rooftop of the vehicle which the road has already eaten.

So, the best way to survive in Cameroon is by relocating to Bastos in Yaoundé with all your belongings including small shops, hair dressing saloons, beer parlours and cosmetic shops. This is what Brenda Biya, daughter of President Biya the so called Father of the Nation has just done.

Bastos is supposed to be a kind of Stamford Bridge hosting foreign diplomats, billionaires and those who matter deep within the Cameroonian society. But Brenda Biya and her dad President Paul Biya have made it a free for all with every Tom, Dick or Harry steaming up and down eating roast corn and plums like in Metta Quarter in Kumba.

Recently, a small shop Bree Cosmetics opened its doors in Bastos under the direct supervision of the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency of the republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. Bastos is the place no one can be killed in Cameroon.

The decision by Brenda Biya to open her cosmetic shop in Bastos is essentially to keep her father’s failed and empty legacy alive. Brenda Biya is now competing with poor Cameroonian girls who are shuttling between Dubai and Douala to make ends meet!! And Cameroon is burning.

Brenda reportedly studied in one of the best universities in the USA when thousands of English speaking Cameroonians were being killed by the Francophone dominated military in a war that her dad declared against English speaking Cameroonians.

Today, the monstrous liability of a head of state and the all powerful Fon of Fons is watching his children either committing the same shameful errors or falling into spectacular new ones.

The fire burning up the Biya family is the result of him thinking that he is a god. His refusal to bow to demands for change in Cameroon and hand over power to the new generation and his corrupt policy in which the funds of Cameroon as a country are confused with his own, have led to a complete breakdown of law and order.

The Biya family is now opening a small cosmetic shop for Brenda Biya, after more than 42 years of watching the economic and political corruption that has reduced Cameroon to wretched and grinding poverty.

Roman Catholic Bishops have appealed to Mr Biya to step down, but he is not showing any sign of leaving. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that he is now struggling to pay his destitute army.

Although French speaking Roman Catholic Bishops are trying to chip away Mr Biya’s authority, the 92-year-old dictator is still firmly entrenched. The most powerful elements of the army, the gendarmerie, the police force and the media are all under his control.

Ultimately Biya’s survival depends on the loyalty of the secret service dominated by elements from his Beti-Bulu tribal extraction, the Francophone military including the National Gendarmerie and to this end, the privileged service men and women will be allocated funds to go and shop at the Bree Cosmetics Shop in Bastos. That will give them a special kind of divinity.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, January 2025

Minister Ngoh Ngoh attends opening of Brenda Biya’s Cosmetics boutique in Yaoundé ⁰

Brenda Biya, daughter of President Paul Biya, has officially launched her cosmetics boutique in Yaoundé’s Bastos district.

On Saturday 18 January 2025, Brenda Biya inaugurated her high-end cosmetics store in the heart of Cameroon’s capital. The shop, called ‘Bree Cosmetics’, offers a wide range of beauty products.

The inauguration ceremony was well attended with the Secretary General at the presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh also answering present.

‘I worked really hard on this project,’ says Brenda Biya in a promotional video about the opening of her boutique in the Bastos district of Yaoundé.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

16, January 2025

Global Economy Stabilizes, But Developing Economies Face Tougher Slog ⁰

Developing economies—which fuel 60 percent of global growth—are projected to finish the first quarter of the 21st century with the weakest long-term growth outlook since 2000, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report. Even as the global economy stabilizes in the next two years, developing economies are expected to make slower progress in catching up with the income levels of advanced economies.

The global economy is projected to expand by 2.7% in both 2025 and 2026, the same pace as in 2024, as inflation and interest rates decline gradually. Growth in developing economies is also expected to hold steady at about 4% over the next two years. This, however, would be a weaker performance than before the pandemic—and insufficient to foster the progress necessary to alleviate poverty and achieve wider development goals.

The World Bank’s analysis is its first systematic assessment of the performance of developing economies in the first quarter of the 21st century. It finds that, during the first decade, developing economies grew at the fastest clip since the 1970s. Yet progress ebbed after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09. Global economic integration faltered: as a share of GDP, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into developing economies are at about half the level of the early 2000s. New global trade restrictions in 2024 were five times the 2010-19 average. As a result, overall economic growth dropped—from 5.9% in the 2000s to 5.1% in the 2010s to 3.5% in the 2020s. Since 2014, with the exception of China and India, the average per capita growth rates of income in developing economies have been half a percentage point lower than that in wealthy economies, widening the rich-poor gap.

“The next 25 years will be a tougher slog for developing economies than the last 25,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. “Most of the forces that once aided their rise have dissipated. In their place have come daunting headwinds: high debt burdens, weak investment and productivity growth, and the rising costs of climate change. In the coming years, developing economies will need a new playbook that emphasizes domestic reforms to quicken private investment, deepen trade relations, and promote more efficient use of capital, talent and energy.”

Developing economies are more important for the global economy than they were at the start of the century. They account for about 45% of global GDP, up from 25% in 2000. Their interdependence has also grown: more than 40% of their goods exports go to other developing economies, double the share in 2000. Developing economies have also become an important source of global capital flows, remittances, and development assistance to other developing economies: between 2019 and 2023, they accounted for 40% of global remittances—up from 30% in the first decade of the century.

As a result, these economies now have greater sway on growth and development outcomes in other developing economies. For example, an increase of 1 percentage point in the GDP growth of the three largest developing economies—China, India, and Brazil—tends to result in a cumulative GDP boost of nearly 2% in other developing economies after three years. Those effects, however, are only about half the effect of growth in the three biggest economies: the United States, the euro area, and Japan. The welfare of developing economies, in short, is still strongly tied to growth in the big three advanced economies.

“In a world shaped by policy uncertainty and trade tensions, developing economies will need bold and far-reaching policies to seize untapped opportunities for cross-border cooperation,” said M. Ayhan Kose, the World Bank’s Deputy Chief Economist and Director of the Prospects Group. “A good start would be to pursue strategic trade and investment partnerships with the rapidly expanding markets of other developing nations. Modernizing transportation infrastructure and standardizing customs processes are critical steps to cut unnecessary expenses and foster greater trade efficiency. Finally, sound macroeconomic policies at home will fortify their capacity to navigate the uncertainties of the global outlook.”

Over the next two years, developing economies could face serious headwinds, the report notes. High global policy uncertainty could undercut investor confidence and constrain financing flows. Rising trade tensions could reduce global growth. Persistent inflation could delay expected cuts in interest rates. Yet the global economy could also do better than expected—especially if its largest engines, the United States and China, manage to gain steam. In China, additional stimulus measures could boost demand. In the United States, robust household spending could result in stronger-than-expected growth, with beneficial effects for developing economies.

The report argues that developing economies have many options to improve their growth prospects, despite the headwinds. With the right policies, these economies can even transform some challenges into significant opportunities. Addressing infrastructure needs, speeding up the climate transition, and improving human capital can improve growth prospects while also helping to achieve climate and development goals. All countries, meanwhile, should work together to strengthen global trade governance, with the support of multilateral institutions.

Source: World Bank

6, January 2025

Biya regime removes VAT on locally produced flours ⁰

Locally produced flours made from corn, yam, cassava, and plantain are now exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT). This new policy, outlined in the 2025 finance law and confirmed by the General Directorate of Taxes (DGI), is expected to lower the price of these products on the market by 19.25%, which matches the current VAT rate in the country.

The government sees this move as part of its strategy to promote “import substitution.” By encouraging the production of local flours, Cameroon aims to reduce its reliance on imported wheat, one of the country’s most imported food products, alongside rice. This dependency has heavily contributed to the country’s trade deficit.

In 2023, although imports dropped by 31.6% compared to the previous year, Cameroon still spent CFA178.3 billion on wheat imports, down from CFA260.7 billion in 2022. France remains the top supplier of wheat to Cameroon, followed by Poland, Russia, and Germany. Notably, Poland saw a 9% increase in wheat exports to Cameroon in 2023.

To lessen the country’s dependence on imported wheat, particularly for bread production—which is one of the most widely consumed foods in Cameroon—the government has been promoting local flours in recent years. Before removing VAT on these products, the government had already modified bread production standards, allowing up to 15% of local starch-based flours, such as cassava and yam, to be blended with wheat flour. The long-term goal is to gradually replace wheat flour with local flours in bread-making.

In 2023, the Ministry of Youth launched a training program for trainers in local flour processing, with the aim of teaching at least 378 young Cameroonians to make pastries using locally produced flours. In line with these efforts, a platform for local producers was established in 2022, with a target of producing around 5 million tons of high-quality products by 2030. However, this target seems ambitious, given the current pace of local flour production.

In his national address on December 31, 2024, President Paul Biya announced that 12,800 tons of local flours were produced in Cameroon in 2024. In comparison, the country imported 887,400 tons of wheat in 2023, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Achieving the goal of producing 5 million tons within five years will require significant investments, especially from millers whose factories are mainly designed to process wheat. As Alfred Momo Ebongue, Secretary General of the Cameroon Millers’ Industry Group (GIMC), pointed out, mills will need to be redesigned or adapted to process local tubers like cassava, yam, and potatoes instead of just wheat.

Source: Business in Cameroon

18, December 2024

IMF urges further actions after CEMAC Summit ⁰

Reacting to the outcomes of the extraordinary summit of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) on the region’s economic situation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has commended the commitment of the heads of state while urging “further actions.” These additional efforts, the IMF stated in a December 16 communiqué, should focus on “rebuilding buffers, enhancing public finance sustainability and transparency, mobilizing non-oil revenues, and addressing debt vulnerabilities.” The organization also reaffirmed its readiness “to support the region in achieving sustainable and inclusive growth.”

The extraordinary summit, held in Yaoundé, was reportedly convened at the insistence of the IMF. The Bretton Woods institution had raised concerns about declining foreign exchange reserves in the CEMAC region. These reserves increased from 2.3 months of imports in 2016 to 4.6 months in 2023 but showed a “downward trend” in 2024, according to the Cameroonian presidency.

Observers believe the IMF’s broader aim for the summit was to encourage Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Chad to join its Economic and Financial Reform Program, which Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Congo-Brazzaville are already part of. Reflecting this objective, one of the summit’s recommendations called on “other member states to formalize agreements with the International Monetary Fund as soon as possible to benefit from its support and that of other technical and financial partners.”

Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the IMF’s Africa Department, emphasized the need for “bold actions,” particularly in improving transparency in public finances and the oil and gas sectors. He also reiterated the importance of CEMAC’s fixed exchange rate regime, which he noted “continues to serve the region well by effectively anchoring inflation expectations and reducing uncertainty associated with international trade and investment.” Selassie welcomed the renewed commitment to external sustainability, describing the summit as a pivotal step forward.

“This Heads of State Summit has laid the groundwork to advance critical discussions on regional policy assurances and on safeguarding regional macroeconomic stability,” he stated. Selassie added that IMF staff, along with national and regional authorities, are continuing discussions to align on efforts to improve CEMAC’s fiscal adjustment path, preserve external reserves, and strengthen debt sustainability.

Source: Sbbc