Business

The Ministerial Committee of the Central African Monetary Union has called on governments within the sub-region to seek for diverse strategies of creating state revenue so as to improve on Economic Growth. The call was made during an ordinary session of the committee in Yaounde presided by Cameroon’s Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey- President of the Commission. 

In order to achieve the objective, the chairman of the Commission says the following measures should be considered: - The promotion of Regional Integration so as to foster an enlarged business environment where more investors are attracted and to reduce budgetary expenditures.

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Sep.2015

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Centurion Law Group is pleased to announce that Norman J. Nadorff will join the group as Special Counsel effective November 1. He will be based in Houston and will serve as both an advisor to the firm and as a legal practitioner. Mr. Nadorff has 30 years of legal experience in the oil and gas industry. He recently retired from BP, where he served as in-country Senior Counsel for Angola from 2006 to 2015. Mr. Nadorff has extensive experience with E&P legal work in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa and elsewhere for BP, Conoco and ARCO, including two expatriate assignments in Indonesia. He has excelled at finding practical solutions to thorny legal issues facing foreign subsidiaries and in developing national legal departments. At ARCO, Norman wrote the Company’s policies on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, U.S. Anti-boycott laws and U.S. Export Regulations, and has lectured widely on anti-corruption laws and developing local talent. 

Mr. Nadorff is Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas Law School, the University of Houston Law Center and the University of Miami School of Law, and is an annual lecturer at Angola’s Agostinho Neto University Faculty of Law. In 2006, he played a key role in the creation of a pioneering international oil and gas master’s program at Angola’s national law school. Later, Norman helped organize, and taught in, similar programs in Thailand and in Equatorial Guinea (in cooperation with Centurion Law Group).

Licensed to practice law in Texas and holding a Juris Doctor degree from The Ohio State University College of Law, Mr. Nadorff also holds an MA in Spanish and Portuguese and a B.A. in Political Science (summa cum laude), both from Saint Louis University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was a Fulbright Fellow in Law in Brazil (1980-1981). For three years Mr. Nadorff was a Director-at-Large of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and is a current Member of Board of Advisors of the AIPN-Oxford Press Journal of World Energy Law and Business (JWELB). He was co-editor of a 2014 special JWELB edition titled, “Sub-Saharan Africa: Comparative Views on Anti-corruption Laws and Enforcement” as well as co-author of an article appearing in that edition called, “Where There’s a Will There’s a Way: Making Angola’s Probity Laws Work”. He also authored an often cited article entitled, “Habeas Corpus and the Protection of Human and Civil Rights in Brazil 1964-1978” (University of Miami Journal of Inter-American Law, 1981).

CEO of Centurion Law Group NJ Ayuk said: “We are delighted to have Norman on board at Centurion. He is a giant in the oil and gas industry, with a track record of success that is next to none, and he is a great addition to our firm. He is a successful and experienced legal advisor in all facets of oil and gas law in Africa. Centurion is the number one oil and gas law practice in Africa and we have the audacity to dream big. I am excited that our oil and gas clients will get to benefit from Norman’s repertoire of knowledge and experience. We look forward to adding more excellent lawyers to the Centurion team in the coming months.”

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Ngwa Bertrand

27.Sep.2015

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Centurion Law Group is pleased to announce that Norman J. Nadorff will join the group as Special Counsel effective November 1. He will be based in Houston and will serve as both an advisor to the firm and as a legal practitioner. Mr. Nadorff has 30 years of legal experience in the oil and gas industry. He recently retired from BP, where he served as in-country Senior Counsel for Angola from 2006 to 2015. Mr. Nadorff has extensive experience with E&P legal work in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa and elsewhere for BP, Conoco and ARCO, including two expatriate assignments in Indonesia. He has excelled at finding practical solutions to thorny legal issues facing foreign subsidiaries and in developing national legal departments. At ARCO, Norman wrote the Company’s policies on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, U.S. Anti-boycott laws and U.S. Export Regulations, and has lectured widely on anti-corruption laws and developing local talent. 

Mr. Nadorff is Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas Law School, the University of Houston Law Center and the University of Miami School of Law, and is an annual lecturer at Angola’s Agostinho Neto University Faculty of Law. In 2006, he played a key role in the creation of a pioneering international oil and gas master’s program at Angola’s national law school. Later, Norman helped organize, and taught in, similar programs in Thailand and in Equatorial Guinea (in cooperation with Centurion Law Group).

Licensed to practice law in Texas and holding a Juris Doctor degree from The Ohio State University College of Law, Mr. Nadorff also holds an MA in Spanish and Portuguese and a B.A. in Political Science (summa cum laude), both from Saint Louis University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was a Fulbright Fellow in Law in Brazil (1980-1981). For three years Mr. Nadorff was a Director-at-Large of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and is a current Member of Board of Advisors of the AIPN-Oxford Press Journal of World Energy Law and Business (JWELB). He was co-editor of a 2014 special JWELB edition titled, “Sub-Saharan Africa: Comparative Views on Anti-corruption Laws and Enforcement” as well as co-author of an article appearing in that edition called, “Where There’s a Will There’s a Way: Making Angola’s Probity Laws Work”. He also authored an often cited article entitled, “Habeas Corpus and the Protection of Human and Civil Rights in Brazil 1964-1978” (University of Miami Journal of Inter-American Law, 1981).

CEO of Centurion Law Group NJ Ayuk said: “We are delighted to have Norman on board at Centurion. He is a giant in the oil and gas industry, with a track record of success that is next to none, and he is a great addition to our firm. He is a successful and experienced legal advisor in all facets of oil and gas law in Africa. Centurion is the number one oil and gas law practice in Africa and we have the audacity to dream big. I am excited that our oil and gas clients will get to benefit from Norman’s repertoire of knowledge and experience. We look forward to adding more excellent lawyers to the Centurion team in the coming months.”

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Ngwa Bertrand

27.Sep.2015

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In a timely gesture at the heart of the planting season, the South West Development Authority (SOWEDA) on Tuesday, September 23, 2015, handed over farm packages to 112 selected farming groups in the Region. Worth over FCFA 30 million, the packages comprised of 865 bags of fertilizers, 2,170 litres of herbicides, 530 litres of insecticides, 600 kg of foundation maize seeds, and some sail baits and fungicides.

Addressing the beneficiaries, the General Manager of SOWEDA Dr. Eneme Andrew Ngome hailed the farmers for ensuring food self-sufficiency in the Region, a phenomenon which, through the inputs will significantly increase soil fertility and consequently productivity. He assured them that apart from the inputs (fertilizers and farm chemicals), “SOWEDA will continue to make available improved planting materials at highly subsidized prices.” Improved planting material multiplication farms for cassava cuttings, maize seeds, bean seeds, yam seeds, and plantain plantlets that have been established all over the Region, he said, are a vivid testimony that SOWEDA is doing everything to support the farming population though with limited financial resources. 

The elated farmers, through their representative, George Mbanda, extended special appreciation to the government for always providing inputs especially during planting seasons. Though they complained of some development changes, they hailed the provision of the inputs that encourages them to work harder and maintaining the region as the main bread basket of the country. Representing the Governor, the Secretary General at the South West Governor’s Office, Clement Fon Ndikum, encouraged the farmers not to relent in promoting agriculture and improving productivity. He challenged youths who are unemployed and idling to get involved in farming which is a lucrative activity.

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Sep.2015

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An airplane belonging to Democratic Republic of Congo's new national carrier was released by an Irish court on Tuesday after it was grounded over a debt row with two American investors, Congo's justice minister said. The Airbus A320 is one of two planes recently purchased by the government for the launch of Congo Airways, expected before the end of this year. It was being painted at Dublin airport ahead of its arrival in Congo.

Ireland's High Court grounded the plane last month after the private investors from a company called Miminco said Congo owes them $11.5 million to repay assets seized by government forces from diamond mines they controlled in the 1990s. "The Irish judge found in our favor this afternoon. The plane has been freed and it can return (to Congo) starting tomorrow," Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe said on state-run television. 

The court found that the debt, which Congo acknowledges, did not concern Congo Airways, Thambwe said. Congo Airways is entirely owned by public Congolese entities and is meant to replace the country's last national carrier, which went bankrupt in 2003. Air travel in Congo is dogged by high prices, lax safety standards and poor service. All domestic carriers are banned from operating inside the European Union for safety reasons.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Sep.2015

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The Prime Minister has chaired a session of the Steering Committee of the Program to Modernise the Administration by introducing Results-based Management (PROMAGAR).  Out of 161 programs that were tabled for scrutiny during the third session of the Steering Committee of the Program to Modernise the Administration by introducing Results-based Management (PROMAGAR), yesterday, September 22, 2015 at the Star Building, 157 were adopted. The two-hour in-camera session that started at 9 am was chaired by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang.

The projects had been retained by the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Examination of Programs (CIEP) during its fourth session from 6 to 21 August 2015 in preparation for the second triennial Budget Program due 2016. Speaking to the press after the session, the Head of the Coordinating Unit of PROMAGAR and Technical Adviser at the Prime Minister’s Office, George Elanga Obam, revealed that projects which were not adopted were either discarded or fused. In that category, the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy was told to fuse two of its programmes likewise the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family. The session discarded a program of the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure which aimed at ensuring security of tourists. 

The Prime Minister instructed the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, who is in charge of budget execution to retain the adopted programs and undertake the corrections made. Ministers were also told to ensure that henceforth budget conferences hold after the CIEP session so that programmes adopted benefit from allocation of resources. The Minister of Finance was also tasked to ensure that inspectors general who have the duty of auditing programmes should be assigned as programme coordinators. While the spirit of conviviality and exchange prevailed during the session, George Elanga Obam said, the participants did not lose sight of the objective of government policy to ensure sustainable economic development with emphasis on improving the living conditions of Cameroonians.

Since 2007 when State budget management by programs was institutionalised in Cameroon, public finance reforms have known several milestones highlighted by the integral shift in 2013 to the new program budget paradigm whose second phase starts in 2016. Thus, the Finance Minister in his presentation yesterday noted that since 2012, there is growing satisfaction with the implementation of reforms which introduced results-based management through the notion of the program budget.

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Sep.2015

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