Business

Cameroon Airlines Corporation (Camair Co), the Cameroonian public airline company, has lined up successive losses of FCfa 13 billion in 2012, a little more than FCfa 4 billion in 2013 and FCfa 17 billion in 2014. In total, the airline carrier has lost FCfa 34 billion over the three-year period 2012-2014.

These figures contained in the company's recovery plan, that the American construction company Boeing has just submitted to the Cameroonian government, worsened in 2015, and should further worsen in the year 2016, authorised sources within the airline company maintain.

Indeed, we learn, for many months now, Camair Co is struggling to maintain the minimum service as the company's five aircraft are grounded due to engine failure or lack of spare parts. A few weeks ago, the local Aviation Authority temporarily excluded the Europe zone from the airline operator transport certificate issued to this company. 

But, according to sources close to the Camair Co dossier within the government, these successive losses are explained by the company's business model. "The company's expenditures largely exceed its revenues", reveals our source.

In detail, we learn, fuel costs, which must now be paid in cash due to the company's insolvability, represent more than 60% of revenues ; against 49% for fees paid to the Cameroonian airport company Société des aéroports du Cameroun (ADC) for ground services. Salaries represent 20% of revenues, against 16% for aircraft maintenance costs. All being 140% of Camair Co revenues, excluding depreciation charges, states our source.

"Passengers should no longer be the sole source of Camair Co revenues. They must start other activities such as freight, that generate substantial revenues; in-house maintenance as external maintenance costs the company too much ; establish an aviation training centre with simulators, to enable the company to train staff from other airline companies and for continuation pilot training, on which airline companies generally spend a lot of money", suggests our source.

And to continue, while also recommending the internalisation of ground assistance to aircraft : "the plan proposed by Boeing is organised around the multiplication of aircraft and destinations. There is no point having thousands of planes if the company's business plan doesn't spur profitability".

BIC

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Rita Akana

22.Aug.2016

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From telephone and television parts, a Namibian high school student, Simon Petrus has invented a mobile phone that has an in-built television set, a radio, a light bulb, a fan, including sockets to charge other devices.

It also makes uninterrupted calls where there are radio frequencies without the use of sim cards or airtime, and it is charged using an in-built radiator.

This invention was discovered in July at a regional school technology competition where he won for his rural school, Abraham Iyambo Senior Secondary School, in the Ohangwena Region in Namibia. 

The Grade 12 student told a local media, newera.com.na that his unemployed parents sourced funds to make his two-year old project, which costs about USD 147, a success.

Simon Petrus has qualified for the national finals of the competition where he is the reigning champion for his two-in-one machine that dries and cools seeds.

“When he won last year some judges were of the opinion that there was an engineer at home who was helping him. But the only help he has is from us the teachers here at school. He came up with his own project,” his science teacher, Taimi Vatileni, told the website.

Petrus is an average learner and aspires to become an electronics engineer after he completes Grade 12, his teacher added.

African News

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Rita Akana

20.Aug.2016

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From 30 September to 2 October, the Turkish city of Istanbul will host the very first edition of the Turkish African Business Summit & Expo. In anticipation of this event, a Turkish African Business Association (Taba) team has just spent a few days in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital, where they presented to local businessmen the opportunities available through this event.

The goal being to motivate the Groupement inter-patronal du Cameroun (Gicam– Employers' association), and the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Traditional Arts (Ccima), to encourage their members to participate in this event during which 5,000 participants are expected, including about fifteen African Heads of State.

Since the economic mission led by the Cameroonian Head of State, Paul Biya, in Ankara in March 2013; the economic cooperation between Turkey and Cameroon has been intensified. Estimated at FCfa 75 billion in 2013, commercial exchanges between the two countries have, for example, reached FCfa 86.5 billion in 2014, representing an increase of more than FCfa 11 billion over a year. Officially, both countries strive to quickly bring this figure to FCfa 250 billion.

BRM

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Rita Akana

19.Aug.2016

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The Chinese company Sinohydro announces that it will hire about 1,400 workers on the construction site of the Bini dam in Warak, in the northern part of Cameroon. Out of this global workforce, over 1,000 employees will be of Cameroonian origin, against 400 Chinese nationals, the company specifies.

With a production capacity of 75 MW, the future dam will replace the Lagdo dam, which is facing an ever increasing demand in electricity. Indeed, we learn from authorised sources, it has been a long time since the 72 MW production of this energy infrastructure, whose reservoir is regularly suffering from the results of the dry season, was sufficient to meet the needs of the three regions in northern Cameroon.

As a reminder, the construction works of the new dam will be financed through a loan granted to the Cameroonian government by the International and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). This financial support is for a total of FCfa 182 billion.

In addition to the actual dam, the hydro-electric Bini project in Warak also includes the construction of energy evacuation lines (70 km in 225 kv) and rural electrification lines (30 kv), as well as the rehabilitation and the construction of access roads to the site.

BIC

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Rita Akana

18.Aug.2016

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The palm oil production of the Société des palmeraies de la ferme suisse (SPFS), a Cameroonian agro-industry owned by the Socfin group, showed “a slight drop” during the first quarter 2016, compared to the same period in 2015. The information can be found in an official report from the Socfin group.

Associated to the Boko Haram threat, which according to the said report, “still limits refined oil exports, thereby giving a downward influence to selling prices”; this decline in the production of SPFS during the first quarter 2016 led to, we learned, “an important drop” in the net profit of this company, compared to the first quarter 2015.

A company specialised in the refinery of palm oil, SPFS is wholly-owned subsidiary of the Société camerounaise de palmeraies (Socapalm), an agro-industry unit listed on the Douala Stock Exchange (DSX), the country’s stock market.

A company with a capital of FCfa 2.6 billion, SPFS had a turnover of €8.813 million in 2015, equivalent to FCfa 5.7 billion. This performance is slightly lower than the €8.994 million in 2014.

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Rita Akana

17.Aug.2016

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The population saw in the arrival of the 3G/4G technology an end to not-so-satisfactory call quality network. The technology that went operational in Cameroon in 2015 met with a lot of admiration and expectations. The hopes were however, gradually dashed by the operators who instead of upgrading customer services, plunged into warfare of who was the first to introduce the technology that is yet to positively impact users. Supporting Cameroon in its drive for emergency by decisively contributing to the New Digital World remains to be seen. Each of the country’s phone companies claims to be the innovative leader of telecommunications in Africa, though with little to show to earn customer loyalty. It is clear that one cannot conceive a customer-loyalty strategy without mentioning customer satisfaction even with extensive marketing tools. The consumer experience that hinges on variables like quality of service is yet to ring a bell in the minds of operators.

This is especially as the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libong Li Likeng, insists that call quality in Cameroon was not good enough to satisfy subscribers. The Minister says mobile telephone operators will henceforth explain why are where things are going wrong so that together they can find solutions. This explains the meeting she opened with stakeholders on August 11, 2016.

Government is increasing agreements and deploying optical fibre backbone to provide reliable support to operators, organizations, companies and individuals. More than 8,000 km of fibre now connects the country’s 10 regional chief towns, about 60 Divisional and Sub-divisional headquarters and like Chad. Government’s aim is to satisfy end-users by combating poor service quality and offering cheaper call billings.  Meantime, government has also entered a deal with the African Development Bank to finance the Cameroon component of the Central Africa Backbone project that involves the laying of 916 km of optical fibre between Kumba-Mamfe (187 km), Mamfe-Ekok (82 km), Bertoua-Batouri-Kentzou (206 km), Sangmelima-Djoum-Mintoum-Ntam (331 km) and the Bamenda-Ndop-Kumbo (110 km), all covering the South West, East, South, and North West Regions respectively.

It is but clear that major operators are seemingly focusing on the growth in data (mobile money, mobile Internet) which is contributing significantly to their incomes despite the limited 3G coverage. Segmented offers which target the youths and high-value-consumers (who represent a minority in terms of number) who call through WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook, with serious impact on Voice call, is the twist facing the telecoms sector. 

Cameroon Tribune

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Rita Akana

16.Aug.2016

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