Business

Cameroon Tribune reports that the government of veteran leader Paul Biya is planning a massive rehabilitation of roads in the North West region.This disclosure was made in the MINEPAT Conference Hall in Kumbo, Wednesday, January 11 during the last quarter Divisional Participatory Follow-up Committee Meeting for Public Investment Projects in Bui for 2016. Although participants had had the erroneous believe that the public investment budget for the Division in 2017 had been greatly sliced, the MINEPAT divisional delegate Chief Forsop Dominic Yenai Asaa said the budget had rather witnessed an increase with much programmed for road works.

According to the delegate, the sum of FCFA 4 billion has been slotted in the budget of the Public Works Ministry for continuation works on the Ndop-Kumbo stretch of the ring road. In the same vein FCFA 5.8 billion has been budgeted for the tarring of the Babungo-Oku-Nkor Noni road. This was corroborated by the delegate of Public Works, Botiba Romuald, who said his ministerial department has allocated the sum of 125mCFAFrs to rehabilitate the Takija- Ngondzen- Kuvlu- Mbinon-Lassin-Nkor road, while CFA 85 million will be used to open up the Dzeng-Kifem-Tatum axis. Like other councils in Cameroon, the six councils in Bui will each receive 27mCFAFrs for road works within the municipalities. Other projects include the continuation of rural electrification in the Noni area with an allocation of 52 million for 2017. 

 The Vice Chair of the Committee, Kighe Free Mnkuwiyayen Abel announced that Bui Division’s rate of execution stood at over 88 per cent for the physical and 85.7 per cent for financial realization at the close of 2016. He lauded the improved working climate between the technical services and went ahead to remind participants of one of the objectives of the committee. “I feel it incumbent on me to remind you that one of our objectives is to appraise the level of satisfaction of the needs of the project beneficiaries. For us to achieve this goal, project engineers are expected to control all projects as per the official jobbing orders in question,” the Vice Chair said. He urged contractors to respect the terms of their jobbing orders especially in respect to technical specifications and contractual durations.

Bui First Assistant SDO Dr Mohamadou appreciated the level of execution and urged stakeholders to improve on the situation in 2017. A video projection by the delegate of MINEPAT gave participants an overview of the projects executed in the Division in 2016 with emphasis on good and bad practices. Participants however, frowned at the phenomenon where contractors satisfactorily complete their jobs but have to wait for long to be paid.

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Rita Akana

19.Jan.2017

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The personnel of the State of Cameroon will gobble FCfa 998.5 billion in 2017 out of a total budget of FCfa 4,373.8 billion. Thus, close to a quarter of the personnel of the State of Cameroon will gobble FCfa 998.5 billion in 2017 out of a total budget of FCfa 4,373.8 billion. Thus, close to a quarter of said budget.

Compared to 2016 when the government allocated FCfa 955.2 billion to settle civil servant salaries, we note an increase of FCfa 43.3 billion in expenditure on State workers. “This increase, per the Finance bill, is highlighted by assuming responsibility for new teachers who graduated from the Ecoles Normales Supérieures, as well as students from Grande Ecoles, the announced recruitment in the armed forces and police”. Likewise, the 2017 Finance bill projects that the figure for civil servant salaries will continue to increase until 2018, as it is planned that the amount for this sector will rise to FCfa 1,053.9 billion. And in 2019, this will be FCfa 1,112.7 billion.

The civil service workforce increased rapidly between 2006 and 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on Cameroon produced in 2014. The number of civil servants rose from 167,000 to 250,000, being an additional 6.9% per year, while the average annual increase in the population is estimated at 2.5%.

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Rita Akana

17.Jan.2017

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South African based mobile telephone company, MTN, has refuted allegations that it has collided with the government of Cameroon to violate consumers rights in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

This comes after denizens of the two English speaking regions of the country which happens to be the strong hold of MTN took to the social media complaining of the fact that the mobile company has joined the regime of 84years old Paul Biya to sabotage networks and even block some numbers so as to limit the broadcasting and sharing of information concerning the strike action ongoing in former Southern Cameroon.

It should be pointed out that most of the English speaking Cameroonians identify with MTN network and for some time now, a handful of them complain of their numbers either not being able to receive or make calls, being blocked or their internet bundles get extinct in less than no time. Matters came to a climax last weekend as on Saturday after the Ghost town was declared hundreds of subscribers of the network storm the Bamenda and Buea regional head offices asking for answers as to why their numbers were block and their inability to surf the internet. It is equally worth nothing that the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications have been circulating messages via mobile networks in Cameroon warning citizens against the effects of spreading false information on the social media.

They back what many have described as “empty threat” by stating that such acts are punishable by the penal code ranging from 5years imprisonment and fines estimated at Millions of FCFA.

Responding to these allegations which has since the incident seen MTN losing most of its customers to rival networks, Philisiwe Sibiya, chief executive officer of MTN in a statement made public states that “over the last couple of days, there has being reports and comments on the social media suggesting that MTN embarked on communication to subscribers intended to curtail customers rights and violate customers privacy.” Adding that “…as a responsible corporate citizen, MTN Cameroon will in no instance engage in activities that go contrary to the corporate values of the MTN Group and our license and concession obligations.” While refuting allegations of tempering with their service, the CEO added that “all our services remain accessible to our customers, we remain fully committed to provide quality service to all our customers and to building the special relationship that we have enjoyed for close to 17 years with the Cameroonian public and communities in general and those of the South West and North West Regions in particular.” A section of the statement dated 14 January and signed by Philisiwe Sibiya read.

Despite all attempts by the service provider to redeem its image, Cameroonians of the North West and South West regions who since November of last year have being on strike continue to criticize the company for siding with the government at the detriment of the population.

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17.Jan.2017

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Cameroon’s Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Zacharie Perevet says in a bid to combat underemployment and increase economic growth, some 400.000 new jobs will be created throughout the national territory this year.

He was speaking in a press conference last week in Yaounde during a solemn ceremony organised to paint a picture of the current employment situation of the country.
 
Addressing attendees when he mounted the rostrum, Minister Perevet stressed on the need for job seeking youths to embrace vocational training in order for them to be easily integrated in the various structures created nationwide.
   
While announcing that more emphasis will be paid on job seekers with vocational training skills, the Minister noted that the jobs will be for both the public and private sector job seekers.

It should be noted that during his traditional end of year speech, the head of state, President Paul Biya announced that last year 2016, some 300.000 new jobs were created. But these figures have grossly been disputed by economic analyst who frown at the government nothing that every year gross figures of jobs created are announced over the media but yet unemployment still remains the order of the day.

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Amos Fofung in Buea

16.Jan.2017

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The Ridley Thomas, ship in charge of carrying out the ocean floor studies for the laying of a sub-marine cable between the Cameroonian town of Kribi and Fortaleza in Brazil, finished its mission after 80 days of activities, Camtel, the historical telecoms operator in Cameroon, announced.

After this phase, the company highlights, “the experts and engineers will analyse the capital information for the actual laying of the cable. This will help in particular to determine the route for the 6,000 km of cable crossing the Atlantic ocean and the protections to be implemented, from Kribi to Fortaleza, and define the particularities of the cables for their production”.

As a reminder, the company Huawei Marine Networks, Chinese firm in charge of deploying this sub-marine cable, first infrastructure of this type to link Africa to Latin America, has already awarded the production of this cable of 6,000 km to the French company Nexans.

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Rita Akana

16.Jan.2017

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The public procurement sector in Cameroon showed a better performance during 2016. At least, this is what the Deputy Minister in charge of this sector, Abba SAdou, revealed. Commenting recently during the launch of the new year for public contracts, this Cameroonian government member declared himself satisfied with the rate of executing of public contracts in 2016, which was around 70%, we learned.

Moreover, he specified, “we have a rate of launch for calls for tenders of 98% in 2016 and a rate of signed contracts of 100%”. Before adding: “it is today difficult to talk about fictitious markets. We have a satisfactory audit rate for contracts fully completed, at 75% in six regions. We are still awaiting documents for four other regions. But globally, the general trend is good”.

The results thus obtained, after several years in the early stages during which the rates of execution of public contracts in Cameroon rarely went beyond 50%, are the consequence of the reforms initiated in the sector. The most important ones being the creation of the ministry specifically dedicated to public procurement, the revision of the procurement code to speed up the procedures to award contracts, and the project for awarding contracts online under development.

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Rita Akana

13.Jan.2017

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