Business

In so many ways, Nigeria looks like an investor's dream. Africa's largest economy has an emerging middle class eager to shop in modern stores, live in nicer houses and work in glamorous offices. The country has a shortage of all types of modern space, raising the likelihood that the market will favour landlords for years to come. For a lot of Nigerians living in the diaspora and friends of Nigeria, the opportunity to invest in the Nigerian market is attractive to them but the lack of information makes this challenging.

Join us for our first meetup where we will attempt to shed light on the Nigerian Real Estate Market. We shall have some exciting speakers who will deliver a comprehensive insight into the property space in Nigeria. Some of the topics for discussion will be

• Past, Present and Future trends in the market

• Growth prospects of the market

• What are the Opportunities and Challenges of investing in the market

• Crowd-funding /Joint Venture Prospects for the Nigerian Real estate Market

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Elangwe Pauline

05.May.2016

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WhatsApp has been suspended in Brazil after failing to hand over information related to a criminal investigation in the country.

The messaging app, which has more than 100 million users in Brazil, will be unavailable for 72 hours from 2pm Brazilian time (6pm BST) on Monday after a judge ordered telecoms providers to block the service.

WhatsApp said it has repeatedly told the court that it does not have the information requested. Last month, the service started encrypting every message sent by its users, meaning they could not be intercepted or stored on servers. Even before then, many WhatsApp messages were encrypted, and the service does not store messages on its servers.
Technews

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Elangwe Pauline

03.May.2016

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ASIAN BUSINESS INVESTORS / INDUSTRIALISTS ARE OFFICIALLY INVITED AND WELCOME INTO CAMEROON - THE BUSINESS HUB OF CEMAC REGION IN AFRICA..

At the initiative and under the patronage of H.E Paul Biya , President of the Republic of Cameroon, Cameroon organizes an international economic conference on the theme "INVESTING IN CAMEROON, ATTRACTIVE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT" on 17 and 18 May 2016 in Yaounde . 

AN INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS INVESTMENT IN CAMEROON will be held on 17 and 18 May 2016 in Yaounde, Cameroon - MAMA AFRICA......

This unique event aims to present to businessmen, industrialists, entrepreneurs, policy makers and financial came from Africa and the world the huge investment opportunities in Cameroon. This great conference is indeed a unique opportunity for political, economic and financial leading to have constructive exchanges on major national development projects. The Cameroon has launched in recent years, many developmental projects in the key areas of agribusiness, road, port and airport infrastructure, energy, real estate and urban development, industries mining and new technologies. This diversity of sectors testifies alone the extent of opportunities available for foreign investors.

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Elangwe Pauline

30.Apr.2016

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Cameroon awards  Chinese company Tianyuan Constructions Group Ltd, a contract for the development and electrification of the Ngoye beach in the sea resort of Kribi, in the South of the country. This contract will be executed, we officially learned, within a period of 8 and a half months, starting from the notification date of the contract to the winning company.

Of a total amount of FCfa 2.6 billion, the development and electrification works on the Ngoye beach will be undertaken as part of the Competitive Value Chains Project (PCFC), led by the Competitiveness Committee, of which the Cameroonian Ministry of Economy is in charge.  

With a funding of FCfa 15 billion from the World Bank, over a 6-year period, the goal of PCFC is to contribute to the growth of the wood processing and ecotourism sectors in Cameroon, through investments and direct funding from operators. Based on training and reforms, PCFC also aims to improve the competitiveness and business environment in said sectors.

The development of the Ngoye beach is until now the high point of PCFC in the ecotourism sector. In this project, we learned from credible sources, are also scheduled actions such as "the development of the ecotourism area around the city of Buea (South-West Cameroon, Ed.) and the development of gorilla tourism in the Campo Ma'an national park", located in the south.

These past years, it was the logging industry which garnered most attention in this Project, with notably the still-awaited implementation of two wood clusters in the Eastern logging region and a suburb of Yaoundé, the capital of the country.

BIC

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Elangwe Pauline

28.Apr.2016

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The Customs and Excise department (Direction Générale des Douanes - DGD) of the Cameroonian Ministry of Finance only succeeded in collecting FCfa 175.7 billion during the first quarter of 2016, we learned from reliable sources. This performance, though in increase of 4% compared to the same period last year, is however below expectations, the income target posted by DGD for the first quarter being FCfa 187 billion.

The Cameroonian Customs explain this situation by the drop in imports in Cameroon. Indeed, we learned, compared to the same period last year, the imports of goods, particularly those generating income such as vehicles, raw materials for the brewery industry, etc. dropped by approximately 30% during the first quarter 2016. 

As a reminder, the customs revenue projections in Cameroon for the budgetary year 2016 are FCfa 750 billion. Quick calculation, this means that the national customs administration still have nine months to raise slightly over FCfa 574 billion. BIC

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Elangwe Pauline

27.Apr.2016

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Debate over the CFA franc is once again stirring in West and Central Africa with some experts calling for a reform of the colonial currency.

Some say the region has outgrown the CFA franc, arguing it should be unpegged from the euro or just abandoned altogether.

Ivorian economist Seraphin Prao Yao wrote a book on the topic in 2012. He says the exchange rate of a country must take into account the weight of its commercial partners. And today, the eurozone is not our only partner anymore. He says member countries should also now be taking into account the U.S. dollar and Asian currencies.

Yao says pegging the CFA to the euro makes the currency too rigid and too strong.

France created the CFA franc for its African colonies in 1945. France guarantees a fixed exchange rate with the euro. In return, member states must deposit half of their currency reserves in the French treasury, something some analysts say has slowed development.

The French finance minister said in April that France is open to changing this arrangement but that the initiative must come from member countries.

The 14 countries using the CFA are divided into two monetary unions, but any country can decide to abandon the currency at any time.

Both Guinea and Morocco created their own currencies at independence. Morocco is cited as a success story, while Guinea, with its years of chronic high inflation, is not.

Economists warn that having your own currency carries risks. They point to current financial crises in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. 

Good governance seen as key

Ivorian economist Antoine Ahua Jr. says that the strict monetary policies under the CFA franc have allowed member countries to have a stable and strong currency, which has allowed them to trade externally and to stabilize their economies.

Even critics of the CFA franc agree there are risks and that good governance is key.

Yao says simply untying the CFA franc from the euro will not automatically make member countries emerging economies. Leaders will need to really govern it well, he says.

Earlier this year, Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara, a former governor of the Central Bank of West African States, credited the CFA franc with maintaining growth and keeping inflation under control.

West Africa analyst at the London-based Chatham House, Paul Melly, says big economies like Senegal and Ivory Coast could break off on their own if they wanted to, but that’s unlikely.

“For the smaller countries, for a country like Benin or Togo, or for the Sahelian countries which are very exposed to the risk of drought every second year, the idea of breaking away onto their own, it would leave them very exposed to pressure. It would be much harder for them to maintain a stable currency and monetary position on their own,” Melly says.

But it is an emotional topic for some who see the CFA currency as another vestige of colonialism to be cast off.

Last year, Chadian President Idriss Deby said the region should instead have a “100 percent African currency.”

And the Economic Community of West African States has professed the goal of creating a common currency since the regional bloc’s inception in 1975.

VOA

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Elangwe Pauline

27.Apr.2016

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