Business

The national Tunisian airline (Tunisair) has just announced that it would soon open a route between Ndjamena, the Chadian capital, and Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. This is the 2^nd time, in three years, that this airline announces its presence in the Cameroonian skies.  

Indeed, around end 2014, the Tunisian Minister of Transport, Chiheb Ben Ahmed, had already announced, for 2015, the opening by Tunisair, of a direct route to serve the two main cities of Cameroon which are Yaoundé and Douala.

The delay observed in establishing these new routes could be due to the difficulties faced by this company. Indeed, a week ago, Tunisair announced having made 1,000 staff redundant to reduce its costs and improve its competitiveness.

BIC

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Rita Akana

15.Sep.2016

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On a Thursday afternoon, Patience Michael gathers her children into the living room of their two-room home for prayer time and a Bible reading. Her twelve-year-old daughter reads a passage in a clear voice.

School costs

Michael, 33, watches her daughter closely. The girl is one of the best performing students in her public school. But Michael may not have the funds to pay for another school term for her daughter or three other children.

“Now that the economy is like this, it’s not easy to provide many things for our children like school fees, clothes, feeding and house rent, because now there’s no gain inside the business,” she says.

Michael is a market woman, among millions in Nigeria who make a living in Nigeria’s vast informal sector.

Profits down

For seven years, she’s been selling local food products in front of her house, in a neighborhood of Abuja, the capital. She sells tomatoes, fresh peppers, palm oil, greens, grounded spices and crackers. But these days, she’s barely making a profit.

The annual inflation rate is at 17 percent, the highest in eleven years.

“It was never this bad,” she says. “Many things are very costly in the market. We’re not making any gain inside.”

High cost of food

Africa’s largest economy formally entered a recession last week and Nigerians are feeling the pain. Market women are suffering under the soaring price of local food products.

The recession is the result of several things – attacks in the south that reduced Nigerian oil production, a drop in world oil prices, and a shortage of foreign currency. Also, the removal of government subsidies for fuel purchases and local farmers means transportation and agricultural production are more expensive.

Nigeria has not experienced an economy this weak in 20 years and no one knows how long the recession will last.

Currency weak

Mama Emmanuel is a popular seller in her community and the leader of a local market women's association. She blames her financial woes on Nigeria’s weak currency, the naira.

“Our currency is very, very poor. Being the giant of Africa, what we are seeing in our currency is not what we’re supposed to have,” she says.

Her storefront neighbor, Justina Agu chimes in using pidgin English.

“If you take some money go market buy something, before you know it, money don finish. Only two things that you buy,” she says while chopping up greens for a customer. “Make President Buhari do something so that things will come down.”

Inflation is squeezing customers too. They say they go to the market and leave with very little. 

'Everything is just so hard'

“And you expect me to eat like three times in a day? I’ll just be eating like two times in a day so that we’ll minimize and the next day we’ll continue because there’s no money,” says Godwin Amaana, a taxi driver who stopped inside a market to buy a plate of hot lunch.

“Everything is just so hard,” he says. “We don’t know what’s happening.”

Advocacy groups are working overtime to figure out how to pressure the government to take action.

“Market women are in a vulnerable position because they don’t have access to credit. A woman provides a lot of the time for her immediate family that is because even the man, tendencies are he already lost his job,” says Salaudeen Hashim, a senior program officers at the Abuja-based Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center.

“It is going to be counterproductive for the country not to create an emergency around the economy as a matter of fact now.”

VOA

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Rita Akana

14.Sep.2016

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In Cameroon, 74 public and private organisations were audited on their exposure to cyber-criminality. 8,954 weaknesses were detected. The analysis was made by the National Information and Communication Technologies Agency (ANTIC).

It is not very difficult to attack the country via internet or to hack the digital information systems of the administrations and companies. Actually mentioning it only serves as a reminder. But some American companies thought it necessary to organise a conference on 6 September 2016, for this assessment to be repeated again, as the threat is of a great nature. The timing is perfect, as these companies, gathered within the ATR Cyber consortium, are penetrating Africa through Cameroon where they are established. Other countries are also in their sight: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.

It was thus necessary to re-assess Cameroon, with the different public partners, particularly the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications as well as ANTIC which is the regulatory body for electronic security activities. The watchdog had to present the limits of the national defence system against cyber-attacks.

We learned that the Cameroonian regulation is still incomplete. Indeed, ANTIC still has no authority to sanction though it is in charge of regulating the sector. There is also no legal data protection framework. And this when 53% of cyber-criminal attacks worldwide are on identity theft.

Moreover, there is no collaborative platform between the different entities engaged in the fight against cyber-criminality. Apart from ANTIC, there is the Army, the General Delegation of the National Security Forces and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

Against the threat, the ATR Cyber consortium proposes solutions to contain the existing risks, and prevent problems which may occur on a daily basis. There are many malware circulating, with about 100,000 created throughout the world every month. Just one of these software could hack the data in a computer and even a whole database. In consequence, there can be a risk to the information system of a company or even the entire State. In this case, confidentiality will not be enforced, and the hackers could even take control of the information. Cameroon is not safe in a world where 16 pieces of data are stolen every second. It could start with an email which should have been opened, or a counterfeit software which opens the door to all kinds of threats. ANTIC even reminds that over 90% of software and operating systems used in Cameroon are hacked.

Moreover, it is common for email addresses and social media accounts to be hacked, even those belonging to government members. Telephone calls fraud is also rampant in Cameroon. In 2015, the mobile phone sector lamented losses of FCfa 18 billion for operators; another FCfa 4 billion for the State. According to the 2014 report from the National Anti-Corruption Commission, cyber-criminality cost FCfa 3.5 billion to Cameroon between November and December 2013.

BIC

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Rita Akana

10.Sep.2016

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The Treasury of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), 2nd employer in the country after the State, is far from brilliant. This is at least the assessment made by the board members of this public agro-industrial company, who met on 9 and 10 August in Limbé, in the South-West region of the country. Indeed, the official communiqué made public at the end of this board meeting reveals that CDC is currently facing “a critical situation” for its cash flow, mainly due to the drastic drop in the international prices of rubber, and the price of palm oil on the local market.

For example, we learn, while it was sold between FCfa 2,500 and 3,000 per kilogram up until 2012, the price for rubber on the international market nowadays only reaches between FCfa 700 and 800, the Board of CDC maintains.

At the same time, the above-mentioned communiqué informs, while the production cost per litre of palm oil is of FCfa 602 at CDC, this agro-industrial unit has to sell the same quantity of product on the local market at FCfa 450 per litre, the price approved by the public authorities “since 2008”.

During the past years, the two compounded situations, the board members of CDC highlight, led to “heavy losses” for this public agro-industry, who employs approximately 22,000 people in its plantations located in the South-West region.

Faced with this important drop in international prices and other domestic prices for the main products of CDC, the State of Cameroon, sole shareholder of the company, recently reviewed the status of the company, whose corporate purpose was also broadened.

Indeed, though its activity was until now limited to the agro-industry, CDC can now not only move into agricultural and livestock activities, but also buy shares in other companies active in sectors linked to its business objectives, or create subsidiaries to develop other activities.

These are the projects on which are expected Benjamin Itoe, the new President of the Board of CDC, whose appointment to this position was confirmed during the last extraordinary board meeting of this company.

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Rita Akana

10.Sep.2016

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The Cameroonian government, through the Ministry of Livestock, and Interprofession avicole du Cameroun (Ipavic, Poultry Association of Cameroon), are currently finalising the details for the organisation of the 2^nd edition of the International Poultry Fair of Yaoundé, which will take place from 26 to 28 October 2016 in the Cameroonian capital.

This event will take place in a context of revitalisation of the local poultry sector, which has just suffered losses estimated at approximately FCFa 10 billion due to the bird flu epizooty, which started in a farm in the capital in May 2016, before spreading to several regions of the country. Among those were the Western region, which accounts for 80% of the national poultry sector.

The recent reopening of the poultry market in the infected areas has given back some hope to the Cameroonian poultry farmers, who however look forward to a potential financial support from the State. Based on the requirements expressed by Ipavic, this sector urgently needs 20,000 tons of maize, 2 million one-day chicks and financing worth FCfa 450 million to run again.

BIC

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Rita Akana

08.Sep.2016

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Is it already that time of year again? You better believe it, as Apple's iPhone launch event is upon us once more as we prepare ourselves for an onslaught of new devices from the Cupertino firm.

Apple CEO Tim Cook tips on his highly anticipated keynote the secrets of the new Apple products. The focus is likely to be mainly a device: the new iPhone 7. Stay tuned.

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Rita Akana

07.Sep.2016

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