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The Management of Eneo, Cameroon's electricity operator has again promised like in the previous year to take all appropriate and necessary measures in order to anticipate the management of low water levels in 2016 and 2017. Joel Nana Kontchou, CEO of Eneo, told reporters that he plans to submit shortly a plan of action to the government for the management of low water levels in 2016 and 2017. We of Cameroon Concord thinks Joel Nana has ran short of ideas and should go and go now.

From May to June 2015, the country was rocked by a severe energy crisis that affected the "South Interconnected Network". Justifying the crisis, Eneo did evoke an exceptional hydrological deficit, due to a late arrival of rains and the unavailability of certain thermal structures. Our senior economic reporter hinted that Eneo is slowly but surely destroying the nation's economic sector with its very inefficient leadership.

Joel Nana Kontchou's speech is inaudible at the moment when the population is accusing Eneo of incompetence. Upon his appointment at the head of Eneo, Nana Kontchou promised the Cameroonian people constant flow of electricity. But his rhetoric has been far better than his record. Cameroon Concord says Joel Nana should go and go now.

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Ngwa Bertrand

09.Jul.2015

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The 5^th Exchange Forum between members of Senate’s Finance and Budget Committee and officials of the Supreme Court’s Audit Bench held yesterday in Yaounde. The rate of submission of accounts by local councils to the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court for review has been disappointing. According to the Audit Bench’s 2013 Annual Report, out of 374 accounts expected from local and city councils every year, only 31 were produced in 2013, representing 8.3 per cent decrease rate compared to the year 2012. “There is a management problem in terms of technical, managerial and financial competence of mayors, municipal treasurers and council staff,” complained the President of the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Marc Ateba Ombala, during the 5^th Exchange Forum between his institution and members of the Finance and Budget Committee of the Senate led by Senator Elie Tsoungui Essomba.

Deploring the lapse as a major concern for the Audit Bench and Parliament in their objectives to audit public accounts, he told the Senators and representatives of partner organisations and government pro-governance agencies that only a concerted action could boost the production of accounts and implementation of the Audit Bench’s decisions. Besides the presentation of the Audit Bench’s 2013 Annual Report, an overview of accounts of local authorities was presented. A balance sheet of the first phase (2010-2015) of the decentralisation process indicated that 20 ministries had transferred responsibilities and resources to local councils. Since 2010, over FCFA 192 billion worth of resources from the Public Investment Budget have been equally been transferred. Meanwhile, FCFA 251.7 billion collected by the State was paid by the Special Council Support Fund for Mutual Assistance (FEICOM) to municipal councils, city councils and sub-divisional councils as additional council taxes. Thus, while transferred responsibilities are increasing, the absence of qualified council staff to manage this new dispensation was deplored.

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Ngwa Bertrand

07.Jul.2015

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Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has stepped down a day after Greeks delivered a resounding "No" to the conditions of a rescue package for the debt-ridden country. Varoufakis announced his resignation on Twitter Monday, saying he was told that some members of the eurozone considered him unwelcome at meetings of finance ministers. “Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted 'partners', for my... 'absence' from its meetings,” Varoufakis said.

He said that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had judged that Varoufakis' absence in the finance ministers' meetings might be helpful in “reaching an agreement.” It was “an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason, I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today,” he said. He warned that the referendum result, which saw 61.31 percent of the Greeks oppose an austerity package by the country’s international lenders, “comes with a large price tag attached... like all struggles for democratic rights.” “The great capital bestowed upon our government” must be “invested immediately into a YES to a proper resolution,” Varoufakis said, calling for a deal that includes “debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favor of the needy, and real reforms.” “I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum. And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride,” he said.

Greeks had to choose whether to accept another tough austerity package proposed by the country’s international lenders – the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – in return for fresh bailout loans. Athens received two bailout packages in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of €240 billion ($272 billion) from its creditors following its 2009 economic crisis. In return for the bailouts, Athens committed to implementing harsh austerity measures, which sparked public outcry.

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Ngwa Bertrand

06.Jul.2015

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The Congolese national carrier, ECAir (Equatorial Congo Airlines) will commence flights to Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, starting in August 2015. The company made this announcement in a release published June 30, 2015.

The launch of this new flight to Cameroon, after the start of service to Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, will take place concurrently with launches in Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, Bangui, Central Africa and N’Djamena, Chad specifies the airline which will be the official carrier of the African Games (4th-19^th September in Brazzaville.

With its two destinations in Cameroon, the Congolese airline, which has been rolling out an ambitious expansion plan since the start of 2015, is expected to improve the airline’s 2% share of the Cameroonian air transport market, according to the country’s Aviation Authority figures.

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Ngwa Bertrand

06.Jul.2015

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The new facility will be called the Farmer Development Centre. It was just inaugurated by the Minister of Trade in Emana, situated in the Lékié department, the largest cocoa farming area in Cameroon. In addition to training farmers in this part of the country with the best cultural techniques in order to boost cocoa production, the Emana Farmer Development Centre will provide training over a ten month period on cocoa farming.

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Jul.2015

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The Nigerian business magnate, Aliko Dangote, was received by Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Thursday at the Star Building.

 

150 million US Dollars (about FCFA 88.7 billion) will be invested by the Dangote Group, a Nigerian investment holding, to build a cement factory in Yaounde, after the smooth take-off of its first cement factory in Douala. Speaking after an audience with the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang, yesterday, July 2, 2015 at the Star Building, the Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said the investment’s aim will be to “totally eliminate” any future demand increase in cement in the country.

“Cameroon will not lack cement. We can assure the government that we are here to stay and will continue to invest,” stated the Nigerian business mogul to pressmen while his five-man delegation looked on. Assessing his multinational corporation’s investments in Cameroon, Aliko Dangote was full of gratitude to the Head of State, Paul Biya, the Prime Minister and all Ministers involved for assisting him to establish the Douala cement factory whose products are already on the Cameroonian market. Aliko Dangote said he had a very good meeting with the Prime Minister who promised to continue supporting the group. His company is looking forward to other investment opportunities not only in oil and gas but also in agriculture especially sugar and rice production.

Earlier on, Philemon Yang received outgoing Ambassador of the Republic of Senegal to Cameroon, H.E. Alioune Ndao Fall, who is at the end of his two-year stay in Cameroon. Besides showcasing achievements of cooperation ties between Cameroon and Senegal particularly in the domains of education, military training, housing, the Senegalese diplomat disclosed that the next Cameroon-Senegal Mixed Commission will hold in two months.

Source:Cameroon Tribune

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Jul.2015

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