Business

Government is, no doubt, bracing up and devising every workable strategy to raise the FCFA 4,234.7 billion contained in the next State budget. At least to get earmarked life-changing projects off the ground and possibly improve the living conditions of the population. Over the years, this has been the ardent desire of the Yaounde authorities. Besides the oil sector, grants and loans; government is certainly counting much on non-oil revenue to lubricate its development machinery that had long swung into action with target to drive the economy to emergence by 2035. All eyes here are directed at the customs and taxation departments.

With FCFA 2,316,580,000 as earmarked fiscal revenue for 2016 up from FCFA 2,096,530,000 in 2015, the already existing synergy between the revenue collectors will need to be more than ever strengthened. Anything short of celerity in mobilising the funds would be synonymous with shooting the State in the foot as the FCFA 4,234.7 billion is just a projection. Any counter-performance will greatly jeopardise project execution that government is counting on to lift the beneficiary population out of poverty and underdevelopment.

The six per cent projected growth rate for 2016 is dependent on project execution and the timely execution of the project again depends on the availability of funds. But above all, there will be need to inculcate transparency in the entire process. It is high time our taxation system and the process of collecting them cease from being seen as a way to stifle ingenuity and thwart nascent industries from blossoming. People should not pay taxes as if they were being punished. They should be made to understand why they are taxed the way they are and why and when each tax is supposed to be paid.

However, the much-clamoured synergy between taxpayer and collector can only yield desired fruits for the State if transparency is the watchword. Once under-the-table discussions between taxpayers and collectors, that at best satisfy the egocentric desires of the actors, thrive or when some taxpayers are stretched beyond limits and others left to go untouched, the process will continually be looked upon as witch-hunting or punishment to the weak and political foes. Taxes, like any other revenue, are meant to better the living conditions of the payer. Situations where roads, for instance, deteriorate beyond repairs even when tollgates are regularly paid or where revenue collectors erect skyscrapers here and there and arrogantly celebrate their billions amidst growing sufferings of the masses, to say the least, deter effective revenue collection.

Cameroonians and other businessmen therein should be painstakingly made to perceive that their taxes are needed to give development a chance. The message is easily channelled when what is collected today is done so in all transparency and used as such. The taxation department in 2015 began an operation of broadening the tax base which, from every indication, is yielding fruit. The Directorate General of Taxation reported that taxpayers have increased from 2,500 in the last census by the National Institute of Statistics to 96,791 as at September 2015. Thanks to broadening the tax base, revenue collection in the first nine months of 2015 fetched FCFA 1,300 billion for the State coffers. This, of course; is an encouraging move which should be courageously pursued to include bigwigs who had hitherto taken the pretext of militating for one political party or the other to evade taxes highly needed to advance socio-economic development. Before turning to the money market, as government is increasingly doing-which is not bad anyway although it leads to indebtedness; it pays to have all internal resources sincerely mobilized and transparently used. This is a surmountable challenge as 2016 rumbles off.

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Dec.2015

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Minette Libom Likeng Li is no stranger to controversy. The new Minister for Post and Telecommunications (MINPOSTEL) still has to prove she is fit to be in the 2035 Emergence team. She spent all her time as Director General of the Cameroon Customs challenging the Minister of Finance and at öne point she was heard murmuring privately that she was more refined than Minister Alamine.

Recently on a visit to make contact with the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART), Minister Libom made a mockery of our mobile telecom providers in front of a sell out audience stating the inconvenience they faced ever since the announcement of the move to 4G by MTN and Orange mobile operators.

Said Minister Libom Likeng, "When I learned that operators have gone to 4G, I attempted to make a call, it took three trials, I finally contacted the Director General of ART, Jean Louis Beh Mengue and I paid for a call I did not make."

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Dec.2015

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It is almost end of year and most ‘njangi’ or savings and thrift groups have audited their accounts in order to pay members’ savings and dividends. While some members impatiently wait for the D-Day to purchase numerous items on their already conceived long shopping lists, others are thinking how to clear their financial records, considering the heavy sums they borrowed. Since most ‘njangi’ treasurers often illegally lend out members’ savings to those in need, the consequences of not reimbursing on time might lead to public disgrace. Already, ‘njangis’ that meet monthly have already taken drastic recovery measures while others that meet twice or four times a month had given defaulting members up to the first week of December to balance their records. 

In a case surety was not taken into consideration or the borrower’s savings are not up to the loan taken, members resort to seizing debtor’s property for sale on auction to recover the money borrowed. Kitchen utensil, chairs, carpets and flat panel television sets are some of the items that are often seized. Concerning huge loans, complaints are filed against defaulters at police stations or with gendarmes. Such people are often given deadlines to pay, failing which they can be detained. Though all ‘njangi’ groups have rules on borrowing and reimbursements, some members still attract sanctions on themselves by failing to pay on time.

Given that it is members’ savings that are lent, some of the precautions savings and thrift groups take to ensure that financial crises are averted at the end of year include insistence on low interest rates, sureties and collaterals for huge sums borrowed. In a case where a member is not trustworthy, a loan is given in proportion to their savings to make sure that this will pay back the debt upon failure to reimburse. Other debtors’ loans are recovered in the course of the year when it is their turn to ‘receive’ their ‘njangi’ (or special savings that are handed out to members in turns).

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Dec.2015

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MTN Cameroon, one of the central African country's main cell phone providers, has announced the launch of a 4G mobile network, which the company said would help boost Cameroon's economy and access to basic services. MTN Cameroon says it has nearly 10.4 million subscribers out of a population of about 22.8 million.

"The 4G of MTN Cameroon is an evolution," Linda Kouam, MTN's chief marketing officer, told journalists on Thursday. "Cameroon's economic growth will change. It's access to education for millions of young people; it's access to healthcare, to sanitation programs in the whole world." The network will be rolled out in Yaounde, the capital, and to regional hubs Douala, Bamenda and Buea.

Valentin Simeon Zinga, a spokesman for Orange Cameroon, MTN's chief competitor, said it had the technical and technological capacity to roll out its own 4G network but was waiting on government regulation. Cameroon's Telecommunications Regulation Agency was unable to comment immediately. Gabon's Airtel launched a 4G network last month.

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.Dec.2015

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Camair Co passengers are stranded at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in France. Cameroun info.net reported that the passengers who travelled with the national carrier from Yaounde and Douala have been spending their nights at a hall in the airport and have also been described by French authorities as undocumented.

After several days of waiting, some of the passengers started a hunger strike last Thursday. The situation could have been triggered by the seizure of the Camair co's Boeing 737 for unpaid bills.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Dec.2015

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The adoption of the 2016 financial law by the members of the upper house of parliament during the November session was the main activity of the Cameroon senate during the plenary session. The 4.234 billion CFA francs budget was of prime importance to Cameroonians and designed to propel the country to the so called emergence 2035. Correspondingly, the Senate adopted six bills, including the state budget of 2016.

During the closing the session, Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji (seen here) gave a panoramic view of the just ended session observing that the finance law voted within a short time could be used to meet up with Cameroon’s 3years emergency plan and promote growth and employment and subsequently the amelioration of the living Conditions of the Cameroonians.

In a typical CPDM stye,he saluted the frank collaboration between the different arms of government and decried the many acts of terrorism carried out by the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. Senator Niat urged senators to commit themselves to the Economic, Financial and Socio cultural program of the government for 2016 in order to make Cameroon an emerging nation by 2035.

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Dec.2015

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