Business

12, March 2019

Cameroon suspended from WTO for failing to pay XAF180 million contribution ⁰

Cameroon just got suspended from the World Trade organization (WTO) for non-payment of its contribution amounting to XAF180 million. Trade minister, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, has referred the matter to the Prime Minister’s office on March 5 and requested that the country complies with the requirements of WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.

“I have the honor to inform you, Mr. Prime Minister, Head of Government, that the arrears of our contributions to the World Trade Organization have now peaked at XAF138 million for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018,” the trade minister wrote, stressing there is another XAF42 million to be paid for the FY2019, making an aggregate amount of XAF180 million.

According to Mbarga Atangana, Cameroon is currently subject to category III administrative sanctions, which consist of the suspension of all technical assistance activities and the denial of any access to training organized by the WTO. “Only the clearance of these arrears would allow our country to regain its rights within the Organization,” he concluded.

Source: Business in Cameroon

9, March 2019

Yaounde to promote work opportunities for women in digital sector ⁰

Cameroon will make efforts to enhance the skills of and opportunities for women in the digital business as part of the measures to draw more young girls to the sector, said its telecommunications minister on Thursday.

“The more women we have in digital business, the better for the emancipation and growth of women,” said Minister of Post and Telecommunications Minette Libom Li Likeng.

“Digital economy is the future for our country and Africa. It plays a very important role in economies in developing countries. We will look for efficient and effective ways to encourage young digital entrepreneurs,” Likeng said while meeting with young female digital entrepreneurs at the National Advanced School of Post and Telecommunications.

The event was part of the activities to mark the International Women’s Day on March 8. Over 2,900 female students have been trained by the school with government support, Likeng said, calling for efforts to enroll more girls to the school.

Xinhuanet

9, March 2019

African Union to establish African Central Bank by 2045 ⁰

The plan to establish the African Central Bank (ACB) by the African Union will likely come to fruition by 2045.

Ms Naglaa Nozahie representing the Association of African Central Banks (AACB), said this while presenting the progress report on the convergence of criteria for the ACB to the African Union on Thursday.

The briefing was part of proceedings at the third session of the Specialised Technical Committee of the African Union (AU) on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration, holding in Yaounde, Cameroon.

The meeting, which was organised in collaboration with the African Capacity Building Foundation, had as its theme: “Public Policies for Productive Transformation in Africa’’.

Nozahie, who is also a Special Advisor to the Governor, Central Bank of Egypt, said the purpose of ACB was “to build a common monetary policy and single African currency as a way to accelerate economic integration on the continent’’.

She said the AACB held several meetings from 2002 to 2017 and came up with the proposed macroeconomic criteria that must be met by each member state before the African Central Bank could be established.

She said inflation must be three per cent or less by 2038, overall budget deficit must also be less than or equal to three per cent by 2033.

Similarly, she said the ratio of central bank financing to the government must be zero by 2038 and that each country must have foreign reserves to cover at least six months of importation by 2038.

“In addition, the ratio of public debt to GDP must be less than 65 per cent while the ratio of total tax revenue to GDP must be more than 20 per cent.

“The ratio of government capital investment to tax revenue must be greater than 30 per cent,’’ she said.

Nozahie said experts, who worked on the convergence criteria, also agreed that member countries must maintain the stability of the nominal exchange rate at plus or minus 10 per cent.

She further said that analysis of member countries’ performance showed that only 18 countries, out of 52, currently met all the primary criteria for macroeconomic convergence.

It would be recalled that the AU Assembly in January 2005, which held in Abuja, outlined decisions for the establishment of some African financial institutions to improve intra-African trade.

Part of the decisions was that the African Central Bank should be located in Nigeria, the African Investment Bank in Libya, and the African Monetary Fund in Cameroon.

When it is fully implemented, the ACB will be the sole issuer of the African Single Currency and would become the banker of the African Government and Africa’s private and public banking institutions.

The ACB will regulate and supervise the African banking industry and will set the official interest and exchange rates, in conjunction with the African Government’s administration.

PMNews Nigeria

5, March 2019

African finance ministers are in Yaounde!! ⁰

African finance ministers and experts began a five-day meeting Monday in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde to discuss policy actions and measures required for productive transformation on the continent.

“Africa has 30 percent of all the national resources of the world, but at the same moment what we can see is that poverty is growing. So all those countries of the African Union decided to come here to Cameroon to discuss how we can move forward so as to transform more our economies,” Louis Paul Motaze, Cameroon’s finance minister who chaired the opening ceremony, told reporters.

The meeting is organized by African Union Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration in collaboration with the government of Cameroon.

“We do think in Cameroon that transforming the economy must lead to transforming our national resources so as to create more jobs for youths in particular. So this meeting is very important and we are expecting a lot of decisions and resolutions that can enable our economies to grow,” Motaze said.

Resolutions reached at the meeting are expected to be forwarded to the African Union summit in July for consideration and approval.

Xinhuanet

5, February 2019

Why China just quietly wrote off a chunk of Cameroon’s debt in secrecy ⁰

When top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi met Cameroon President Paul Biya in the capital Yaounde last month and wrote off a chunk of the African country’s debt, the deal very nearly went unnoticed. China issued no press release, and the Cameroon government did not mention the debt cancellation in its write-up of Yang’s visit.

It was only when a Chinese news report later alleged that Beijing had written off 3 trillion Central African CFA francs ($5.2 billion) of Cameroon’s debt during Yang’s trip that the existence of a deal emerged. The figure was incorrect. Five billion dollars is close to the amount Cameroon has borrowed from Beijing since 2000, according to the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI), and exceeds the amount the country is believed to still owe.

But while the news report was wrong, its release did force the Chinese government to speak publicly about what type of deal had been reached. Last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told CNN: “China agreed to waive the interest-free inter-governmental debt that Cameroon had not paid back by the end of 2018.” That debt was worth $78.4 million. Cameroon’s total debt is 5.8 trillion Central African CFA francs ($10 billion), about a third of which is owed to China, according to the International Monetary Fund. In short, this was a tiny slice of Cameroon’s liability to China. So why the initial secrecy?

African debt backlash

Debt write-offs for developing nations are usually greeted with great fanfare, such as the IMF and World Bank’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, or the Paris Club’s landmark debt wipe-out in the early 2000s. In China, it’s more complicated: African debt has become increasingly controversial at home. When President Xi Jinping pledged a $60 billion package of aid, investment and loans to Africa last September at the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, angry posts emerged on the Chinese internet.

Critics questioned why China — where at least 30 million people still live in poverty, defined as an annual income of less than 2,300 yuan (about $340) — was giving money to Africa. Censors quickly deleted the complaints. There is also this to consider: African nations have borrowed $143 billion from China since 2000, according to CARI figures. Beijing’s leniency toward Cameroon could prompt other heavily leveraged nations, such as Ethiopia, Djibouti and Zambia, to expect similar treatment.

China may have also sought an under-the-radar arrangement because of Cameroon’s political turmoil. Last week, police arrested Maurice Kamto, the Cameroonian opposition leader who claims to have won last year’s election, along with several staff supporters, amid protests that are fueling political instability. The West African nation is battling a Boko Haram insurgency in the north, while a secessionist movement is destabilizing the two Anglophone regions of the largely French-speaking nation which was born from the unification of a former British and a former French colony. Due to the unrest, Cameroon has been stripped of the right to host the 2019 African Cup of Nations, the continent’s biennial soccer championship, which will now take place in Egypt.

An election posters for Cameroonian President Paul Biya in Yaounde in November 2018 reiterates he has “the force of experience” on his side.

From a human rights perspective, the bar for Chinese political partners in Africa is low. Beijing backed Zimbabwe during some of the darkest years of dictator Robert Mugabe’s rule, and poured money into Angola under former president José Eduardo dos Santos, an authoritarian figure associated with large-scale corruption.

But 85-year-old Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years, is increasingly looking like an “inappropriate partner” from a business standpoint as China faces growing scrutiny on the continent, says Chris Roberts, a political scientist at the University of Calgary. “Cameroon in every way, shape or form is getting worse by the day in every metric,” says Roberts. “This regime has dismantled whatever foundations it had for a stable economy.”

Deep pockets, deep port

China established diplomatic relations with Cameroon in 1971. Their economic partnership grew after Nicolas Sarkozy became president of France in 2007 and oversaw his country’s decreased engagement with its former colonial territory, leaving a vacuum for Beijing to fill. Since the turn of the century, China has been granting Cameroon debt relief: In 2001, it canceled $34 million of debt, then in 2007 it forgave another $32 million and $30 million was wiped out in 2010. Those figures in fact paled in comparison with the $227 million Canada forgave in 2006, for example, notes Roberts.

But it was in 2011 that China really committed to Cameroon by agreeing to build and finance a new port in the fishing town of Kribi. It seemed a stable place to invest: Cameroon was considered a relatively peaceful nation in a war-torn region. Cameroon’s existing port of Douala was overworked, run down and restricted by its location on a sediment-filled estuary. When completed in 2035, Kribi will be the biggest deep-water port in the region. It will handle exports of Cameroon’s bauxite, iron ore and other minerals and could also serve the Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project, which pumps oil from landlocked Chad.

The first two stages of the project, constructed by China Harbor Engineering Company, were worth $1.2 billion.CHEC is also building a $436 million highway to connect the new port with Douala and has agreed to construct a railway to an iron ore deposit. Other Chinese companies have been throwing up concrete towers around Kribi, in anticipation of its transformation into a thriving regional commercial hub. The Kribi port will also extend the reach in West Africa of China’s Maritime Silk Road, an initiative that Senegal signed on to last year. It is an important part of President Xi’s massive multinational One Belt One Road economic development plan.

The old port compared with the new Chinese-built facility.

“The Gulf of Guinea is strategic for China,” says Xavier Auregan, a specialist on China-Africa relations in Francophone nations, explaining that a foothold there strengthens its interests in West Africa from the Ivory Coast to Gabon. “Cameroon is one of the countries that can bring together the energy infrastructure of … West Africa.”

China’s activity in Cameroon is not restricted to the new port: It was responsible for 90% of road construction and restoration in the country as of 2014, and Chinese companies have built dams and hydroelectric power facilities there. China has also undoubtedly benefited from these developments, with many of the contracts going to its firms. But the Cameroonian government has taken out considerable loans to fund them and debt repayments look increasingly problematic in a now faltering economy. “If you’re saying we lent this money for this project or development effort, and we’re just writing it off because we know we’re never going to get it back,” says Roberts, “that has a domestic effect, but it also has international implications.”

One of the big concerns around Chinese loans in Africa is debt-trap diplomacy — the idea that Beijing will pressure countries that can’t repay loans into handing over key assets. Last December, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta denied that Mombasa’s massive Kilindini Harbor, the largest port in East Africa, had been listed as collateral for a multibillion-dollar Chinese loan to fund a railway. China also denied the report. In Djibouti, similar concerns have been raised over China’s recent acquisition of a stake in a port there.

Gold mine tensions

China’s decision to provide Cameroon with debt relief also comes at a fraught moment between the country’s traditional gold-mining community and Chinese mining companies. East Cameroon is rich in gold. Justin Kamga, coordinator of the Forests and Rural Development Association (FODER) in Yaounde, says Chinese companies are operating illegal mines across the region and have scant respect for the land.

A Chinese mine site in Cameroon. Industrial machines are used to dig up the site.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to CNN’s request for comment. Local Cameroonian miners typically use artisanal mining methods which do not damage the environment, says Kamga. Chinese companies use heavy machinery that often pockmarks villages with multiple holes 30 meters deep, destroying farmland.

Between 2012 and 2015, Kamga said that more than 250 excavations were abandoned, mostly by Chinese companies. From 2015 to 2018, he said, more than 100 people died in such holes, which trigger landslides and spark local outrage at Chinese companies. In December, nine people died in such an incident, according to FODER.

Artisanal gold miners in East Cameroon.

Regulations stipulate that operators should safely cover holes, but Kamga says the Cameroon army protects Chinese mining companies, meaning they often face little legal retribution. Cameroon ranked 152 out of 180 countries on the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index. The Cameroon government did not respond to CNN’s emails asking for comment. Auregan says that while reckless mining has tarnished China’s image, it is unlikely to be the reason for the write-off of the 2018 debt. “China sees the geostrategic and long-term vision of the importance of Cameroon in that region,” says Roberts. In short, as long as China needs a maritime foothold in West Africa, Cameroon’s debt burden may be lightened for a while longer.

Culled from the CNN

23, January 2019

China Waives A Year’s Worth Of Cameroon Debt ⁰

China says it has written off almost $78m (£60m) from Cameroon’s debt as part of measures to ease economic hardship in the central African nation, but analysts say it is a play for greater access to resources.

The debt relief announcement was made on Friday shortly after a meeting between President Paul Biya and Yang Jiechi, a special representative of China’s President Xi Jinping.

Cameroon’s total debt burden to China stands at almost $5.7bn (£4.4bn), according to figures from the Autonomous Sinking Fund, the public entity that manages Cameroon’s external debt.

The sum of $78m that has been wiped is money that should have been paid in 2018, but which Cameroon failed to pay.

Instead, the country’s president flew to China for the third Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation in September and pleaded with Chinese authorities to ease Cameroon’s debt burden.

Cameroonian economist Ariel Gnitedem says the amount cancelled looks paltry in comparison with the total debt, and says it could actually be for China’s long-term benefit.

“China wants to control the sub-regional market and Cameroon is the gateway,” he told the BBC.

“It is possible they also want a greater share in the enormous natural resources in Cameroon which are essential to feed its home industries.”

Cameroon has been contracting loans from China to build dams, roads, hospitals and other infrastructure.

Source: BBC

22, January 2019

Yaounde, Beijing Look to Improve Ties Amid Miners’ Tensions ⁰

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s special representative was in Cameroon this weekend to improve relations between the two countries. Trade and security ties have steadily grown between Beijing and Yaounde. But tensions between Cameroonian and Chinese miners has given China a bad name

When Cameroonian President Paul Biya hosted China’s special representative Yang Jiechi on Friday, both men had nothing but good things to say.

Biya welcomed China’s Belt and Road Initiative – Beijing’s multi-billion-dollar plan to connect Asia, Europe and Africa.

Yang said bilateral relations had reached a new starting point with important development opportunities.

When asked by VOA about the common belief that Chinese are exploiting Cameroon, Yang called it a misunderstanding. He said Cameroon and China need to work closely to make their people realize that they stand to benefit a lot.

But while Yang visited the capital, about 60 Cameroonian miners protested outside a Chinese-run gold mining operation in the village of Ngoura. The miners there have blocked access to the site since Thursday.

Protesting miner Patrice Wouyou said their Chinese competition exploits and destroys Cameroon’s natural resources.

He said Chinese miners violate Cameroon laws, which prohibit mining on river beds, swampy areas and waterfalls. They will keep this mining site closed, he said, until the government forces the guilty (Chinese) miners to face justice.

Protest leader Rigobert Ngom said the Chinese bribe corrupt Cameroon officials to overlook their code violations. He said they also lure teenagers out of school to dig for gold.

Ngom said he is surprised that the government gives mining licenses to the Chinese when there are qualified Cameroonians who own mining enterprises and are ready to industrialize their country.

But while mining remains a contentious issue, Cameroon’s Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development disputes the notion that China simply exploits.

China is Cameroon’s primary investor, according to the ministry, putting more than $400 million per year into the country’s roads, dams, telecommunications, stadiums and housing projects.

Critics note much of the investment goes toward accessing Cameroon’s natural resources, while the country is at growing risk of debt distress.

But ministry spokesman Alamine Ousman Mey said China is beginning to offer more help than in the past.

Beijing in November, he noted, gave Yaounde aid equal to $3 million dollars to help people displaced by Cameroon’s separatist crisis in English-speaking regions.

“We are very pleased that our partners like China are offering humanitarian support up to 1.8 billion CFA and material. We have signed a letter of exchange to supply to these two [Anglophone] regions.”

China’s special envoy Yang during his visit announced the cancellation of about $5 million of Cameroon’s debt as well, though the remaining amount owed was not clear.

VOA

19, January 2019

Douala International Airport embarks on new solar scheme ⁰

A new ground-mounted 1.2MW solar installation at Cameroon’s Douala International Airport has been put into operation to help reduce the CO2 emissions produced by aircraft during ground operations. Aircraft currently use jet fuel based auxiliary power units (APUs) or diesel-driven ground power units (GPUs) to provide pre-conditioned air and electricity to aircraft during ground operations.

Though its new solar installation, Douala Airport will now be eliminating at least 2,575 tonnes of CO2 from over 5,100 flights annually, based on the more than 5.5 million kWh per year it is projected to generate. As a demonstration of its engagement to the project, the Government of Cameroon funded the purchase of airport gate electric equipment to be connected by the newly installed solar park.

Simulation is a key assessment technique in air traffic control used for training programs and for the validation of new concepts. Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe, Minister of Transport of Cameroon, said: “With this solar facility at Douala International Airport, Cameroon advances the modernisation of its energy sector by using renewable energy to reduce green-house gases emissions and protect the environment. The Government of Cameroon is determined to continuing the implementation of tangible actions for a more sustainable aviation.”

Jane Hupe, ICAO Deputy Director Environment, said: “Sustainable development and climate change continue to be critical issues for the international community, and this latest commitment by Cameroon is a great example of the concrete actions which can be implemented as part of a broader air transport environmental strategy. ICAO expects to see many other countries replicating these cost effective and emissions reducing solar-at-gate solutions.”

The new “Solar-at-Gate” pilot project is the third such initiative implemented by ICAO, and the second to be realised in Africa following on recent installations in Jamaica and Kenya. The installations are part of a longer-term Capacity Building for CO2 Mitigation from International Aviation assistance programme which ICAO has been carrying out, with funding support from the European Union. It provides direct assistance to 12 African and two Caribbean region States.

Mr. Steven Rault, Chief of Programmes of the EU Delegation in Cameroon, commented: “The construction of the solar photovoltaic system at Douala International Airport shows the results achieved by the ICAO-EU partnership on the environment, in which the authorities of Cameroon have been actively participating. By funding such initiatives, the EU wants to contribute to the sustainable development of the international aviation.”

Source: International airport review

19, January 2019

Camtel reveals it has sacked 50 employees ⁰

State-own telephone network service provider Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has reportedly fired 50 of its employees, including administrative, commercial and technical staff. According to an official statement by the company, Judith Yah Achidi Achu, General Manager of Camtel, made this decision based on recommendations of a disciplinary committee established to evaluate the cases of the concerned workers on an individual basis.

Details are sketchy at this point, but a source at Camtel said that the GM is believed to have ordered an internal audit to investigate and identify specific HR issues. These include employees who have secured employment using fake certificates or who have earned undue bonuses, or whose salary does not match their qualifications.

The latest development has occurred while the company’s new management is attempting to rejuvenate the beleaguered corporation. Specifically, the intention is to address financial difficulties including debt and the result of inability to recover substantial amounts owing.

According to a report released by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in August 2018, Camtel had 3,634 permanent staff across the country, a figure which has been on the rise since 2006. There is speculation that more jobs could be lost as the audit progresses. The company provides landline connectivity services and CDMA, and plans to incorporate GSM going forward.

Source: itwebafrica

14, January 2019

Chad, Central African Republic Threaten to Abandon Douala Port, Blame Corruption ⁰

Landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic have dispatched senior customs officials to Cameroon to look into allegations of corruption in the Atlantic Coast port of Douala.

At the port, heavy equipment is excavating and relocating huge quantities of abandoned material at the Douala seaport.

Some of the containers, with vehicles and other goods destined for Cameroon, Chad and CAR, were abandoned by importers who complain that high levels of corruption, red tape and overpriced services are driving them away from one of Africa’s largest harbors.

Shipping containers are stacked up, Jan. 10, 2019, at the port of Douala, Cameroon.

Pay and pay again

Moise Vokeng of the Professional Transporters Network at the Douala seaport says importers and exporters are looking for alternatives.

“When you arrive at the port and at any checkpoint, from gendarmes to police to customs, you have to pay money, you have to pay heavy money, you do not know why you pay but you must pay before you pass,” Vokeng said.

“Whether you enter with empty trucks or you are loaded, you have to pay. When we load we have to wait for the tracking equipment from the customs to be certain and when it is certain we have six hours to leave the seaport to Yassa, which is the first checkpoint. When you arrive at the checkpoint after six hours you have penalties to pay,” he added.

Vokeng says clearing procedures are long and cumbersome because of degraded infrastructure and lack of investment. He says to take a car out, an importer needs no fewer than 25 stamps before paying $2,000 to customs officials for a 5- to 10-year-old car. He says to remove a car from the port at times takes two to three weeks.

Yaya Abdallah, a Chadian driver finally leaves the port. He says corruption is not only a problem inside the port, it stalks drivers on the road as well. He says Chadian and CAR drivers say Cameroon’s military and police harass them and drivers pay huge sums of money, which makes their businesses highly unprofitable.

He says they spend more than $300 to bribe gendarmes and police between Douala and Ndjamena, and no one seems to listen to them when they complain.

Cameroon gendarmes in Bertoua, east Cameroon, control vehicles on the way to the Central African Republic, Jan. 5, 2019.

Officials deny bribe-taking

But Ngube Philomene, a senior official of the Cameroon military controlling traffic between Cameroon and Chad and Cameroon and CAR, says that because of insecurity, they have to control the trucks. She denies they collect bribes from drivers.

“We are systematically controlling all vehicles to CAR and Chad because of insecurity and the crisis in CAR. We have to do it for their own security and safety,” Ngube says.

Douala is the nearest ocean gateway for Chad and CAR, but importers and exporters say they are fed up and want to relocate to Cotonou in Benin.

Onana Ndoh, secretary general of the Community of Workers at Douala’s port authority argues, that Cotonou will be more expensive. He says it would be better for the landlocked countries to meet Cameroonian authorities and negotiate improvements.

“The shippers of Central Africa and Chad cannot leave the port of Douala, the shortest way for them to go to the sea,” he said. “I can tell you that the commandant of Gendarmerie in the port has already taken steps to punish all caught in creating complications to shippers.”

Director general of Chad’s customs, Colonel Ousmane Adam Dicki, visited Cameroon, Jan 10, 2018.

This week, Chad’s director of customs, Colonel Ousmane Adam Dicki, visited Cameroon. He says he first wants goods that have been piling up there to be cleared before negotiations on what his country will do next.

He says his country has sent him to take stock of all merchandise and containers destined for Chad, and to control and organize their transit within the shortest possible time.

More than 2,000 containers have been stuck in Douala for the past two months. In the past 30 years, there has been no major investment to expand the port.