Business

Reduce the quantity in a Gaz cylinder and redistribute in other empty cylinders to resell at FCfa 6,500 each. This is what Fidèle Fonkou, owner of a gas depot for 2 years in the suburbs of the Cameroonian capital-Yaounde, was doing. An activity dangerous and risky to the population living close by and detrimental to consumers.

He was arrested on 21 September 2016. “We have been carrying a surveillance on them for a month and two weeks now. When we had the confirmation of their activities, we sent our teams and around 4 AM (in the morning), we caught them red-handed”, the Departmental Delegate of the Ministry of Commerce for Mfoundi, Jules Obama, told the pro-government daily-Cameroon Tribune. 

According to the officials in charge of the departmental delegation of Commerce for Mfoundi, this operator used to tampering with domestic gas cylinders will be tried in court, in addition to losing the authorisation which allowed him to operate in the domestic gas distribution sector in Cameroon.

Due to this lucrative activity for shady distributors, Cameroonian consumers have been constantly complaining about gas cylinders which officially weigh 12 Kg, but which are surprisingly often empty after only two or three days of use.

BRM

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Rita Akana

26.Sep.2016

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Over a thousand employees of the Bolloré group in Cameroon took part, this 22 September 2016 in the city of Douala, the economic capital of the country, in a 7-km sports walk labelled “Marathon Day”. The information was revealed in an official communiqué released by the senior management of the Gulf of Guinea Region of this French logistics group, with railroad and port concessions in Cameroon.

“Marathon Day is an event sponsored by Cyrille Bolloré, President of Bolloré Transport & Logistics, which puts the emphasis on values such as social cohesion, solidarity and team spirit. Therefore, the President's office has taken the commitment of giving financial support to a charitable association depending on the number of participants in the marathon”, the group specified.  

This first edition of “Marathon Day”, as highlighted by Mohamed Diop, Regional Director of Bolloré Transport & Logistics for the Gulf of Guinea, is the very first to be organised under the “colours of our new visual identity in our region, and formally celebrates, the presentation of the new brand to the public at large”.

As a reminder, it was in July this year that the Cameroonian subsidiary of French logistics company Bolloré Africa Logistics official changed its name to become Bolloré Transport &Logistics Cameroun. This mutation follows the decision taken by the administrators of this group, to merge its activities in the transport and logistics sector under one unique brand, we learned in an official communiqué published on 30 March 2016.

With a workforce estimated at about 7,000 employees in Cameroon, the Bolloré group is one of the biggest employers after the State, as recently stated by the Minister of Employment and Social Security, Grégoire Owona.

BIC

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Rita Akana

24.Sep.2016

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On September 22, 2016, in the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation’s premises in Yaoundé, a conference-workshop was organized by the GEOREX-INCUB incubator, one of the many fruits of France-Cameroon cooperation.

GEOREX-INCUB is a platform for professionalization, technology development and incubation for aggregation, management and interpretation of geolocated data for forest, environment and archeology purposes.

The GEOREX-incubated incubator is supported by the GEOVECTORIX company (Director Carine Tsoungui) in cooperation with the firm CREX Consult (Director Pascal Nlend). GEOREX-INCUB was financed (2016-2017) to the amount of 63,840 euros by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation, within the framework of the Support Programme for research (PAR) of the Debt Reduction-Development Contract (C2D) between the two countries. GEOREX-INCUB benefts from the scientific support of several researchers of the Research for Development Institute (IRD): Pierre Couteron and Nicolas Barbier (AMAP); and Geoffroy de Saulieu’s (UMR PALOC). 

GEOREX-INCUB’s objective is to help Cameroonian auto-entrepreneurs to create startups in geomatics.

For decision-making, land-use planning, sustainable management of resources, natural and cultural heritage preservation, measurement, mitigation and compensation of impacts and risk prevention, are all themes that require the mobilization and analyzing large sets of georeferenced data. Operational actors (local authorities, technical services sector, private companies, NGOs) may not have the human resources to effectively carry the data-mobilization process and thematic interpretation. Given the scale of demand, current as emerging, developing subcontracting can generate employment with high added value, which may even include a progressively outsourced services segment for companies in developed countries. It is in this niche that GEOREX-INCUB positions itself, promoting entrepreneurship in the fields of geo data mining (including satellite images in remote sensing) satellite data (called "cold"), field data (called "hot"), and massive data/big data management (in acquisition and processing, storage, cataloging, archiving, displaying, formating, high value-added analysis, updating, webcasting) in connection with public actions.

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Rita Akana

23.Sep.2016

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Members of the Inter-ministerial committee on Railway infrastructure have met to evaluate the first five year plan to renew part of the country’s railways secure level crossing and acquire new wagons and Locomotives.

During the 25th session, chaired by the Minister of Transport, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o, it was revealed that 4 cranes and 8 scanners have been acquired and are already in use in Douala, Yaounde, Belabo, and Ngaoundere.

It was also disclosed that 150km of railway between Batchenga and Sa’a, have been renovated. 

The 5 year plan also targets the rehabilitation of the Yaounde North, Yaounde South and Douala entry ways.

These projects to modernize Cameroon’s railways will enable the sector play a crucial role during the upcoming major international sports events, the 2016 and 2019 Africa cup of Nations.

The International Committee on Railway Infrastructure has as mission to follow-up investment programs renovations and development of railway infrastructure.

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Rita Akana

23.Sep.2016

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LONDON--Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) said Friday it has extended its market agreement with Africa's 4G-LTE telecommunications operator Afrimax Group with the launch of a joint service in Cameroon.

Under the deal, the two companies will launch long-term evolution data services under the Vodafone Cameroon brand initially in Cameroon's two biggest cities, Douala and Yaounde. LTE is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals.

As part of the roll-out of Vodafone Cameroon, the partnership will open Vodafone-branded retail stores and kiosks, supported by a network of distributors and resellers offering an attractive range of LTE handsets and devices. 

The launch in Cameroon builds on the framework agreement between Vodafone and Afrimax, announced in November 2014, to co-operate and explore potential partner market opportunities in a variety of territories in sub-Saharan Africa, the companies said in a joint statement.

As part of the agreement, Vodafone and Afrimax have already partnered to launch LTE services in Uganda and Zambia.

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Rita Akana

23.Sep.2016

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Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) said on Thursday information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen from its network in 2014 by what it believed was a "state-sponsored actor."

The data stolen may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and hashed passwords but may not have included unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information, the company said.

"The investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network," the company said.  

Yahoo said it was working with law enforcement on the matter.

It was not clear how this disclosure might affect Yahoo's plan to sell its email service and other core internet properties to Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N).

Verizon said in July it would buy Yahoo's core internet properties for $4.83 billion.

Verizon said on Thursday it was notified of the breach in the last two days.

"We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests ... Until then, we are not in position to further comment," the company said.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

22.Sep.2016

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