Business

The Cameroon Government will in the nearest future receive more Spanish investors. The information was revealed by the new Spanish ambassador to Cameroon, His Excellency Jorge De Orueta Pemartin during an audience granted by Senate President Marcel Niat Nifenji.

The Spanish diplomat also noted that one of the criteria to qualify any Spanish firm to invest in Cameroon shall be based on whether they are interested in the venture. Amongst the many investments to be realised, the diplomat said the Health and Education sectors shall be the major. 

While parting company with the Minister of External Relations, Jorge De Orueta promised to maintain a coordial tie between Cameroon and Spain.

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Sep.2015

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The Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey has announced the putting in place of a national plan to protect official documents through the computerization of government services. The Minister made the announcement on 16th September 2015 during a meeting with computer experts in Yaounde. The meeting was organized by the National Centre for the Development of Computer Sciences, CENADI in partnership with the Ministry of Finance.

Facing the press at the end of the meeting, Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey said the initiative will enhance growth and contribute to the creation of jobs. He also emphasized on the importance of such a project for an emerging nation like Cameroon. 

Partners to this project like CENADI and Societé Interface S.A are confident on the long term effects at a time the world has embraced new technology. Habib Ewane, the international Director of Interface Societe, affirms that “the project if finally implemented will facilitate administrative services since all documents will henceforth be computerized”.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Sep.2015

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Before Fastjet launched low-cost flights between Harare and Dar es Salaam last year, Zimbabwean businessman Jonathan Jabangwe had to brave a hair-raising, three day bus journey to meet his clients in Tanzania. Fastjet is among a wave of low-cost airlines launching or expanding operations in Africa as they seek to capture middle-income travellers who are tired of dangerous road journeys but cannot afford major international carriers. The new airlines hope to undercut larger carriers by offering "no frills" services, replicating a model pioneered by European airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair. Where low-cost routes have opened in Africa, prices have dropped by around 40 percent and passenger numbers have risen by almost half, a study by consultants Intervistas showed.

"It makes a big difference to me. The roads are very slow and you take your life into your own hands," Jabangwe told Reuters as he queued to catch a flight from Johannesburg. "Why aren't these flights all over Africa? With the global economic situation, every dollar counts." Africa's aviation industry is growing at 4.7 percent, faster than any other region and passenger numbers are expected to double to 300 million in the next two decades, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Growth is, however, off a very low base and widespread expansion of low-cost aviation is hampered by government protectionism, high taxes and stringent regulation. 

An "open skies" agreement, similar to the EU pact agreed in the 1990s that led to a boom in low-cost air travel, was signed 28 years ago but has never been properly implemented. Low-cost airlines say governments block competitors from flying international routes to protect state-owned airlines like Kenya Airways, South African Airways (SAA) and Ethiopian Airlines. African countries continue to champion national airlines, despite nearly all ventures resulting in losses or bankruptcy. SAA has been subject to several government rescues in recent years. Kenya Airways posted record losses this year and may need a $500-$600 million bailout, its government said this month.

Nigeria is considering re-launching a state airline and tiny Djibouti said this month it would revamp its previously bankrupt national carrier. The new Air Djibouti will be managed by Iron Maiden rock singer Bruce Dickinson. If governments were more pro-competition and reforms were imposed it could add $1.3 billion a year in revenue to African economies and create 155,000 jobs, the IATA says. "Government protectionism is top of the list in terms of what's inhibiting low-cost aviation moving forward and why Africa is so far behind the rest of the world," Fastjet boss Ed Winter told Reuters.

Winter says African air fares are on average four times higher than in Europe. Kenya's transport minister James Macharia said it had one of the "most open skies in Africa". South African and Ethiopian regulators did not respond to request for comment. The lack of government cooperation means most low-cost airlines remain focused on domestic operations in South Africa, home to the continent's most developed economy. Comair's Kulula and South African Airways-owned Mango are well established in South Africa, while FlySafair and Skywise launched their first flights there in the last year. Comair posted lower profits this week and warned that South Africa was no longer a growth market.

Airlines seeking faster growth in less developed markets are starting to branch out. Fastjet, started by Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-loannou, is based out of Tanzania. FlyAfrica.com, launched last year, is run from Zimbabwe and announced plans on Aug. 30 to expand routes to destinations in West Africa, the most populated region on the continent but with the least developed flight links. The biggest missed opportunity is Nigeria, home to Africa's biggest economy and largest population. Widespread corruption and mismanagement means West Africa's Lagos hub is nowhere near as developed as the continent's other three: Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Johannesburg.

To get from Nigeria to other African countries, it is often faster and cheaper to fly via Europe. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has yet to appoint a cabinet more than three months after taking office, saying he needs to root out corruption before naming his ministers. "Nigeria is an anomaly. A huge potential market but very difficult to operate in," Erik Venter, Comair's chief executive officer, told Reuters. "You would expect in a market of that magnitude the likes of a Comair should be climbing in there enthusiastically but we honestly don’t want to touch it," Venter added.

Yet experts remain convinced that African low-cost aviation will take off, eventually. Its young population and rising incomes bear similarities with southeast Asia, where low-cost capacity increased four-fold to 200 million in the decade to 2014, according to the Centre for Aviation, a Singapore-based think tank. "Eventually it will break through but the question is, when?" Brendan Sobie, chief analyst at the Centre for Aviation, told Reuters. "Things can happen fast if the governments start changing policies and the right conditions are there."

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Ngwa Bertrand

17.Sep.2015

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The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development has opened a second phase of the National Business Plan in Yaounde, intended to raise a sum of FCFA 1500 billion that will ensure the country’s agricultural potentials at international scene. Minister Essimi Menye officially opened the business forum on Monday the 14th of September 2015 in Yaounde that was heavily attended by financial and technical partners as well as farmer’s groups from the world at large.

Minister Essimi Menye observed that the CPDM government was doing everything to ensure the modernisation of the agricultural sector of the country so as to meet the second generational standards. The modernisation project by the Cameroon government intended to run from 2014-2020 within which a sum of FCFCA 3500 billion will be raised is on a good foot as the Cameroon government has already raised a sum of FCFA 2000 billion. 

This has been made available with huge contributions from the French Development Agency,C2D, European Union and the World Bank that has made a cumulative investment of FCFA 400 billion in a bid to accompany Cameroon in her modernisation project. This ongoing second fund raising business come together, according the Agriculture boss is a platform for the government to raise FCFA 1500 billion, 300 of which has been pledged by the African Development Bank. The Secretary General of MINADER, Jean Claude Eko'o Akouafane on his part says government will start the six year modernisation project as soon as the needed sum has been attained.

As the government awaits the kind gestures from her technical and financial partners, His Excellency Holger Manicke, German Ambassador to Cameroon has reaffirmed his country’s support in ensuring the modernisation of agriculture in Cameroon. Worth noting is the fact that the second phase of the National Business Plan organised by the Ministry of Agriculture took place in the presence of a good number of cabinet ministers.

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Sep.2015

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All Councils or local governments from the Littoral, North West, West and South West Regions of Cameroon have begun technical partnerships with the Ministry of Public Works to improve on the country’s road network. The partnerships were materialised on 11 September, 2015, in Buea, South West Regional capital, with the signing of technical assistance conventions between each of the 142 Councils and the Ministry in charge of Public Works. By the conventions, the Ministry of Public Works will provide technical inputs meanwhile the councils will conceive and direct road maintenance needs. The wave of partnerships, begun on 25 August in Mbalmayo with other Regions, expected to hatch a new lease in constructing structures like bridges and mending existing degrading roads. 

Presiding at the conventions signing ceremony at the Buea Council hall, Patrice Amba Salla underscored that workshops had earlier been organised to prepare Councils in the management and preservation of roads as part of public assets. The Minister explained that the Head of State, President Paul Biya, has increased the financial packages for each council from FCFA 13 million last year to FCFA 28 million this year. The move is to help accelerate and better exercise the irreversible decentralised competences in the road sector. Minister Amba Salla praised the European Union (EU) for their multiple contributions in accompanying Cameroon’s decentralization drive.

Oliete Sergio, the EU’s Head of Infrastructure Section in Cameroon, amplified the front-line role of the Ministry of Public Works in Cameroon’s decentralization process. He later told the press the EU has invested some 178 million euros in Cameroon’s rural development including the decentralisation process.

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Sep.2015

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Facebook's 'like' button - which enables the social network's 1.5bn monthly users to approve a post - has become one of its signature features

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Sep.2015

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