Business

After many months of reluctance and negotiations, the Aviation Authority of Cameroon has finally issued the technical certificates for the 2 MA 60 aircraft delivered to the State of Cameroon by the Chinese firm Avic International, which were officially received on 1^st April 2015, the Minister of Transports just revealed. Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o spoke on this subject while defending his ministry’s budget in front of the Parliament’s Finance Commission.

This step now completed, Minister Mebe Ngo’o indicated, the aircraft will join the fleet of Camair Co, the Cameroonian public airline, which will now have five aircrafts. However, the minister  explained, “before their commissioning which is scheduled for indication only to take place during the third week of December 2015, the five qualified crews will go back to China for a refresher course, while the aircraft will go through the technical tests and trials”.

As a reminder, a controversy on the reliability of these aircraft started in Cameroon, following the decision of the government to purchase them through a loan from the Chinese government obtained in July 2012. The quality of these carriers being questioned by some experts, Avic International had to organise a press trip in its workshops in China, to try to silence the debate..

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Dec.2015

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The Société Anonyme des Brasseries du Cameroun (SABC), local subsidiary of French group Castel, commissioned on 28 November 2015 in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, a new conditioning line of FCfa 10.7 billion.

With a bottling capacity of 28,000 bottles per hour, this “HST”, as nicknamed by Francis Batista, Managing Director of SABC, is the second line of this range in Africa, after South Africa, the Managing Director of the leading company in the Cameroonian brewing industry stressed.

The new line, which commissioning coincides with the end of year, a period of high consumption, will generate 70 new direct jobs. These will come in addition to the 6,000 people already employed in the country by SABC and its subsidiaries, the Société Camerounaise de Verreries (SOCAVER) and Société des Eaux Minérales du Cameroun (SEMC).

With more than 80% shares of the beer and fizzy drinks market in Cameroon, SABC had a net income of FCfa 24.7 billion in 2014, for a turnover of FCfa 351.7 billion, an increase of 6.9% compared to the previous year.

BRM

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Dec.2015

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In Cameroon, an eight-year agreement has been signed between Gazprom’s affiliated company, Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore Pte Ltd (GM&TS), Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), Perenco Cameroon S.A. (PERCAM), Golar Hilli and Golar Cameroon (GOLAR) for the floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project, off the coast of Kribi.

According to Offshore Energy Today, the project is an allocation of 500 bcf of natural gas reserves which will be supplied from the Sanaga Sud and Ebome field by SNH and Perenco. Gazprom, however, is to be the only off-taker from the FLNG terminal.

Golar will be the operator of the FLNG Terminal through its Hilli FLNG vessel which is at present under conversion at the Keppel shipyard in Singapore. In fact, first deliveries from the terminal are expected to commence in Q2 of 2017. 

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.Dec.2015

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The International Monetary Fund has admitted the yuan into its select basket of reserve currencies, giving a major boost to China’s position as a global economic power. The yuan, also called the renminbi, now joins the dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket used as standard in dealings with the financial reserves of world countries. IMF chief Christine Lagarde described the inclusion "an important milestone in the integration of the Chinese economy into the global financial system". 

China is the world's second largest economy and the addition is a victory for its push to make the yuan a freely usable currency. In 2009, Beijing unsuccessfully pressed for creation of a new reserve currency to cut reliance on dollars after the global financial crisis. According to the SWIFT financial transactions system, the yuan is the No. 4 currency for global trade, accounting for about 2.5% of the total. The Chinese government, however, still pegs its currency to the dollar. According to Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, until the yuan is allowed to trade freely, the IMF decision will "increase the dollar's importance". "Those governments or investors hoping for a dilution of dollar dominance for portfolio diversification or political reasons are getting exactly the opposite," he said.

The US Treasury Department said it supported the IMF’s inclusion of the yuan in the Special Drawing Rights basket. Washington, however, is wary of China’s growing financial clout and the serious challenge which the dollar faces as more emerging economies are switching to their local currencies in trade. On Saturday, Russia said it may issue 6 billion Chinese yuan ($938 million) worth of treasury bonds in 2016. TASS news agency also said Russia's central bank had decided to include the yuan in its foreign exchange reserves. IMF’s approval is set to anger lawmakers in the US Congress and presidential candidates amid fierce maneuvering for the 2016 presidential election.

US lawmakers have repeatedly refused to ratify a 2010 IMF reform to give greater weight to the BRICS group of emerging market powers, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The IMF created SDRs in the 1960s as a possible international currency. Until 1980, the basket was 16 currencies including Iran and South Africa but that was reduced.

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Ngwa Bertrand

01.Dec.2015

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The first edition of the CameroonInvest Forum (CIF) opened on 25 November 2015 in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital, with over 200 local and foreign companies participating. The goal of this event organised by the Investments Promotion Agency (API) is to promote the Cameroonian economy to all potential investors.

According to the Investments Promotion Agency, a total of ten foreign delegations are taking part in this economic event whose theme is “development through investment”. The first edition of CIF will end on 27 November 2015.

In addition to the big trade fair during which participants will compete on their know-how, CIF will be centred on round tables on different themes, as well as B2B meetings between investors, in order to create winning business partnerships.

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Ngwa Bertrand

28.Nov.2015

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Nov.2015

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