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FCfa 1.3 billion. This is the amount unduly collected by approximately 700 Cameroonian civil servants during 2016, in collusion with the IT and Payment Units at the Ministry of Finance, with some employees of these services now in prison, we learned from sources within this ministry.

The scheme used by these fraudsters and their accomplices, we learned, consisted in receiving several payments for back pay, salary advances, salary top-ups due to promotions or reclassifications.

While the Ministry of Finance employees involved in this fraudulent practice are in the grip of the Cameroonian justice system, the beneficiaries have already been served with a notice indicating that they owe the Public Treasury, to ultimately refund all monies unduly collected, our sources report.

Labelled “Mboma”, or boa in English, this is a widespread practice in some sections of the Cameroonian civil service such as the army. The different measures taken by the government have not succeeded in uprooting this practice which, combined with the phenomenon of fictitious civil servants, was taking away up to FCfa 5 billion on a monthly basis from the Cameroonian Public Treasury, based on the confession of the former Minister of Finance.

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Rita Akana

11.Jan.2017

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According to a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the economic situation in Chad, this country in recession (growth rate of -3% in 2016 according to President Déby) due to the drop in international prices for crude oil received from Cameroon, in 2016, a bilateral loan worth a total of FCfa 30 billion. This revelation by the IMF confirms the comments of the Chadian Head of State, Idriss Déby, who, addressing his government and the management of this party in an audio archive recorded on 26 December last year, confessed having “begged” for financial resources from various “partners” of his country.

This help search, President Déby specified in the above-mentioned document, was meant to “pay the salaries” of civil servants, whose monthly payroll, he recalled, moved from FCfa 2 billion in 2002, to approximately FCfa 50 billion nowadays.

The financial help provided by the State of Cameroon to Chad, first country to send troops to fight against Boko Haram alongside the Cameroonian army, thus added up to the decisions taken by the Central Bank of CEMAC States last year, to help the countries in this community in reducing the public deficits incurred by the drop in oil revenues.

With regards to Chad, who only got FCfa 25 billion (against FCfa 400 to 700 billion in the past) in oil revenues as at 26 December 2016, according to Idriss Déby, the BEAC decided between March and April 2016, to increase the upper limit for the refinancing of Chadian commercial banks.

This measure was in addition to the decision taken by this issuing institution to halve the volume of minimum reserves imposed to banks operating in the CEMAC zone, to boost their liquidity and therefore increase their capacity to finance the sub-regional economies.

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Rita Akana

10.Jan.2017

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With a simple tap on their mobile phone, it is now  possible for a sick person to find for free a doctor depending on their specialisation and location, and to get a prompt appointment or for a later date. The app was launched on 25 December 2016, this is the change brought about by the app “Docta” in Cameroon, a country which registers one doctor for 10,000 inhabitants (in 2013, Ed.), against the standard of one doctor for 1,000 inhabitants decreed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“The first beta version was launched on 28 October 2016. I personally went to Cameroon to support the doctors in the trial phase, to test the tool. A second beta version was released on 23 November 2016. But the app is nowe available since 25 December 2016, to actually make an appointment. This is a Christmas present to our country”, explains Elie Teumawe, Cameroonian IT engineer based in Paris, who developed “Docta”.

According to its developer, in addition to linking patients and doctors, “Docta” also offers to doctors who are members (50 at the moment, Ed.) “a full service to manage appointments, a huge drop in missed appointments due to a system of reminders via Text messages/email”. Still for doctors, the app helps to “advertise on internet the specifics of their activity to patients and future patients, offers them the possibility of joining the largest community of doctors which promotes cooperation in Cameroon and throughout the world sharing experiences, knowledge, skills and exchanges, especially on different clinical cases.”.

Later on, as Elie Teumawe highlighted, this app will also enable the payment of health fees online, thus giving the possibility to members of the diaspora of helping their nearest and dearest who remained in the country; it will offer a geolocation service for hospitals and pharmacies, with the possibility of finding in real time the closest pharmacy on duty; and will make available to patients databases full of information on the pathologies, while raising awareness within the population on behaviours which may put them at risk.

The app “Docta”, which plans to revolutionise access to health technicians in Cameroon, explains its sponsor, was born from personal experience, but mostly from a revolt. “During my stay in the country in 2014, I fell ill. My older brother with whom I was staying took me to a clinic in Tsinga (a neighbourhood in Yaoundé), even though it is very far from the house. In that excellent clinic, they discovered I had contracted malaria. I had to go back everyday, just to receive an injection”, Elie Teumawe narrates.

And he continues: “In that moment, I thought that an app looking for doctors and hospitals, while providing detailed information to the patient, would be great to quickly get referred. Also, the incredible violence and emotion created by the Monique Koumatekel case utterly convinced me to launch the Docta app”.

As a reminder, Monique Koumatekel was a young Cameroonian woman who died in labour at the Laquintinie hospital in Douala last April, after going to several hospitals where she did not receive care. To save the babies (she was pregnant with twins) of this patient who was refused treatment by Laquintinie hospital, her sister, in desperation, undertook to slice her stomach open outside, with a makeshift scalpel. This occurred in front of the mobile telephone cameras of curious passers-by, who immediately flooded social networks with the horrifying images.

Docta, is the online medical care scheduling service in Cameroon.

Are you a patient?
Are you feeling bad? A faintness ? An accident ? You need to be taken for an emergency? Come on! You can now geo-localise 24h / 24 and 7/7 a doctor nearby you and book an instant appointment for free with a click on Docta.
You want to book an appointment with a doctor or a specialist? You wish to know the doctor availability ? Now you can! due to Docta, consult a doctor profile, find consultation carries , choose among the dates and slots available the one that suits to you before booking an appointment.

Are you are a doctor?
Due to Docta you can , enter the great community of the Cameroonian doctors around the world, make some shares with other doctors on the integrated forum about rare clinical cases or only discuss with a doctor working on an interesting topic.
Due to Docta you can acquire, build and enhance your visibility on the internet.
You can fill the holes in your diaries and acquire new patients
Through Docta, you can have a full service appointments management, reduction of not charged appointments through SMS / E mail reminder sent to your patients.

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Rita Akana

29.Dec.2016

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The new managing team of Camair Co, the Cameroonian public airline, does not seem to agree on the volume of debt of approximately FCfa 35 billion which it inherited. “Let us not stay FCfa 30 or 35 billion. We are selecting a consultancy firm to audit this debt”, the Managing Director of this company, Ernest Dikoum, revealed. 

And the MD of Camair Co continues: “When we will analyse the debt, we hope that maybe some structures will grant us moratoria, reductions, etc. If we audit the debt and it drops down to FCfa 25 billion for example, we will take the commitment with the State to service it over time”.

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Rita Akana

23.Dec.2016

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During 2016, the production of palm oil in Cameroon dropped by about 30%, mainly due to unfavourable climate conditions. This drop in the production should remain the same proportions in 2017, the Regulatory Committee of the Oleaginous sector and the Association of Oleaginous Refineries of Cameroon (ASROC) plan.

Anticipant this lower production in 2017, coupled with an annual structural deficit which has been peaking at 130,000 tons for 2 years now, due to the dynamism observed in the processing section; the Cameroonian government has just authorised imports of 95,000 tons of palm oil and derivatives, Jacquis Kemleu Tchagbou, General Secretary of ASROC, revealed. 

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Rita Akana

23.Dec.2016

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Per the 2016 hit list of most expensive cities worldwide for expatriates, published this past 14 December by the specialised firm ECA International, Yaoundé is among the 10 most expensive African cities. The political capital of Cameroon gets the 9^th spot in the African top 10, just ahead of Ndjamena, the Chadian capital.

This year, Luanda, the Angolan capital, is the 2^nd most expensive city worldwide and the most expensive in Africa for expatriates. Kinshasa (DRC), Khartoum (Sudan), Libreville (Gabon), Pointe Noire (Congo), Brazzaville (Congo), Conakry (Guinea) and Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) complete the African top 10 list in this annual ranking by ECA International.

At the global level, Tokyo (Japan) is the most expensive city for expatriates, ahead of Luanda, Zurich (Switzerland), Geneva (Switzerland), Yokohama (Japan), Basel (Switzerland), Nagoya (Japan), Bern (Switzerland), Osaka (Japan) and Kinshasa.

The calculations of the cost of living index made by the firm ECA are based on a typical shopping basket, including items such as food, household products, leisure services, clothes, restaurants prices as well as alcohol and tobacco. The calculations were made in American dollars. Rent, public services, car purchases and school fees are not included.

This ranking is especially totally different from the one recently published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) of Cameroon, in which the most expensive town in the country during the first half of 2016 was rather Buea, the capital of the South-West region.

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Rita Akana

22.Dec.2016

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