Business

Cameroon Ministry of Public Procurement has just awarded five contracts for a total amount of FCfa 13 billion to French and Tunisian technical engineering firms, for the purpose of monitoring road construction works within the framework of the three-year government Emergency Plan being implemented since last year.

The highest contract, for a total amount of FCfa 3.1 billion has been awarded to the French engineering firm Louis Berger, to supervise the construction work of the Sangmélima-Oveng road, in the south of the country.

French company Egis, as well as Tunisian engineering companies Etudi International and Scet Tunisie have been awarded contracts of amounts between FCfa 2.6 and 2.9 billion. All the works should last 52 months, we learn.

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Rita Akana

17.Jun.2016

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After being wiped out by the massive imports of frozen chicken until 2005, then by a national psychosis created by the discovery of the avian flu virus on a duck carcass in the Extreme-North in 2006, the Cameroonian poultry sector is again on the verge of collapsing.

On 3 June 2016, the public authorities announced that the avian flu epizooty declared in the city of Yaoundé a week earlier, has spread to the Western region. This news is even more serious for the local poultry sector considering that the Western region represents, on its own, approximately 80% of the national production, according to the operators’ statistics.

In other words, with the ban on the sale of chicken in Bafoussam, mainly, and the whole Mifi and Koung-khi departments, where two outbreaks of avian flu were diagnosed, the Cameroonian poultry sector finds itself without any market. And this, whether on the local or sub-regional level.

Indeed, at the local stage, the market is supplied from the city of Bafoussam, meanwhile to conquer the sub-regional market (Gabon, one of the main markets, has even banned imports of chicken from Cameroon), the poultry production from West-Cameroon transits through Yaoundé, the capital of the country in which the sale of chicken has been banned for a week now. This ban follows the death of 24,000 birds from avian flu at the Mvog-Betsi Avian Complex, which thus lost 75% of its flock.

Target of 50 million chickens in 2016 seems compromised

These bans which hit the poultry market have negative consequences on the cash flow of the farmers and hatchery operators, who now have to stock their products for longer (the disinfection of the Yaoundé markets could last a month, according to the Ministry of Livestock), with additional production costs (poultry feed and veterinarian treatments, for example).

But above all, the local production will decrease. Indeed, with the current situation, the poultry sector will have difficulties making available the 50 million chickens announced for 2016 by the Poultry Trade Organisation of Cameroon (Ipavic). Especially due to the loss of 33,000 adult poultry at the reproductive state (24,000 dead following the avian flu and the remainder slaughtered as a preventive measure) in the Mvog-Betsi Avian Complex, 4^th hatchery of the country.

According to the figures communicated to RFI by the engineer agronomist Bernard Njonga, who was at the forefront of the fight against imports of frozen chicken in Cameroon, 1.3 million eggs to hatch were also destroyed in this poultry farm (equivalent to as many potential chicks), as well as approximately 1.4 million chicks who were killed (equivalent to as many potential broilers). In the western part of the country, 300,000 chicks produced per day will remain unsold due to the ban on the chicken trade, if they are not simply slaughtered by the hatchery operators to avoid creating additional productions costs.

In 2006, a psychosis following the discovery of the H5N1 virus on a duck carcass led to losses estimated at FCfa 3 billion in the Cameroonian poultry sector. In 2016, with a minimum of 3 outbreaks of avian flu already declared in the main production areas and markets of the country (Yaoundé, Bafoussam and Bayangam), the bill might prove hefty for this sector employing approximately 400,000 people and weighting 3.3% in the GDP.

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Rita Akana

09.Jun.2016

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There are +180 million People in neighboring Nigeria. The Bamenda ~ Enugu Highway opens up opportunities to the farmers of the West, North West and South West provinces of Cameroon that can literally be transformative in the fortunes and livelihoods of these entire regions.

The biggest hurdle that farmers face now is the wanton government corruption that keeps grants in the pockets of ghost farmers in high government offices, lack of access from the few true farms to this particular highway and an ingrained culture of impunity, tax and spend, that has blinded the government in Yaounde to the transformative value of the Nigerian market to the fortunes of its citizens. In Cameroon, as long as the average government official does not derive a personal gain in any project it is trivialized and subsequently dismissed.

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Rita Akana

06.Jun.2016

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Cameroonian Prime Minister, Philémon Yang, has ordered  the Minister of Public Works to “urgently launch the programme to open up large agricultural and livestock production areas and tourist sites”, we learn in an official communiqué.

According to Cameroonian traders, the dilapidated state of rural roads is the main reason for the high cost of agricultural products in the main cities of the country, with the farmers having a lot of difficulties in sending their production to the cities.

Interviewed in June 2015 in Parliament on the reasons for the impractical nature of the roads leading to production areas, the then-Minister of Public Works, Patrice Amba Salla, had pointed out the under-provision of the rural roads maintenance fund. “The budget allocated to the maintenance of rural and harvest track roads is approximately FCfa 10 billion for a network, whose inventory reveals that it has over 100,000 km of roads”, he revealed.

Based on the calculations of this former member of the Cameroonian government, this budget corresponds to an allocation of FCfa 60,000 per kilometre of road to be maintained, in a country where the cost price for the maintenance of one kilometre of unpaved road is estimated at FCfa 2 million.

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Rita Akana

03.Jun.2016

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5,000 hectares. This is the area on which Cameroonian billionaire, Nana Bouba, is planning to develop modern agriculture in the towns of Wassandé and Djertou, both located in Northern Cameroon, specifically in the Adamaoua region.

But, for the moment, he indicated to the Minister of Agriculture, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, who just visited the modern setup of Nana Bouba the farmer, in which one thousand employees are deployed; only 300 hectares are currently developed and exclusively intended for maize production.

The entry in the maize sector of this industrialist, who is credited with the 6^th fortune in sub-Saharan francophone Africa, according to Forbes magazine, should help give a boost to the national production of maize insufficient to meet the needs of the customers.

This arrival in the agricultural world will primarily enable the Nana Bouba group to diversify its activities. As a reminder, this group is already present in Cameroon and in the CEMAC area through the distribution of fast moving consumer goods (Soacam), the food industry (Sagri), processing of oils (Azur) and recently the production of mineral water (Opur).

Brice R. Mbodiam

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Rita Akana

01.Jun.2016

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The bird flu outbreak that hit Cameroon has caused tremendous loses to one of the Country's largest poultry farm. The Mvog-Betsi poultry Complex, one of the main players in the poultry industry in Cameroon, just lost approximately 24,000 birds, equivalent to 75% of its livestock, the Cameroonian Minister of Livestock, Dr Taïga announced. The remainder of the flock was killed and all carcasses were buried, this member of the government highlighted.

In order to avoid any spreading of the epizootic, the Mvog-Betsi poultry complex has been put practically under quarantine since the end of last week. According to our sources, specialised teams continue the incineration operations for all the equipment of the farm, as well as the total disinfection of the complex, which could last over a month.

Once the epizootic declared, the Ministry of Livestock sent a mission in the Western region, the largest production area of the country, to assess the situation and warn farmers to heighten the vigilance and sanitary measures in the farms.

The last case of avian flu found in Cameroon dates back to March 2006 in the Extreme-North region, when analyses done on a duck carcass detected the presence of the H5N1 virus in its organism. This discovery created to a full-blown psychosis within the Cameroonian population, leading to the collapse of the local poultry market which quickly became the stage for unprecedented sales.

This psychosis also led to the slaughtering of an important stock of poultry by farmers, who later received over FCfa 600 million from the Cameroonian government as compensation. The local poultry sector was again injured, when it had barely recovered after the ban on the imports of frozen chicken.

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Rita Akana

31.May.2016

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