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Boeing, South African Airways (SAA) and low-cost carrier Mango have operated Africa’s first sustainable-fuelled flights powered with tobacco-based biofuels.

The SAA and Mango flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town, operated by a Boeing 737-800, used sustainable biojet fuel produced from Sunchem’s nicotine-free tobacco plant Solaris, refined by AltAir Fuels and supplied by SkyNRG.

Project Solaris, launched in 2014, is an effort from SkyNRG, Sunchem SA, South African Airways and Boeing to develop sustainable biojet fuel from the Solaris crop. In 2015, Project Solaris earned the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) certification, one of the strongest sustainability standards for biomaterials in the world. The RSB certification provides a model to further expand the production of the Solaris crop in a sustainable way.

"It is fitting that on our 100 year anniversary we are flying on fuels ‎that not only power the flight, but ensure a sustainable future for our industry," said Miguel Santos, managing director for Africa, Boeing International. "This project is a great example of environmental stewardship that delivers economic and health benefits to South Africa."

“Over the last two years Sunchem SA successfully worked side by side with local farmers in Marble Hall, Limpopo to grow the Solaris crop and make today's biofuel flight a success. We are very proud about this achievement as it shows that the patented Sunchem Solaris technology opens a new market for Southern Africa and beyond,” said Hayo de Feijter, CEO Sunchem SA.

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Rita Akana

19.Jul.2016

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During 12 years, a network of embezzlers ruled in the Cameroon international bank for savings and credit BICEC (Banque internationale du Cameroun pour l'épargne et le crédit), local branch of French group Banque Populaire (BPCE). After an enquiry carried out in March 2016 in this banking institution by COBAC, who police the banking sector in the CEMAC region, it appears that this network, "implicating external service providers assisted by insiders" has caused BICEC financial losses estimated at more than FCfa 50 billion, reveals the weekly Jeune Afrique.

These misappropriations discovered last February, a few weeks after the arrival of the new Director General of this bank, Alain Ripert, were made, we learn, through significant over-invoicing and fictitious bills, regularly paid to service providers "via a system outside normal procedure".

At the heart of this practice, the COBAC report indicates, were two senior bank officials. It concerns, we learn, the Deputy Director General Innocent Ondoa Nkou, who has had to resign (after 20 years in the position) a few weeks after the discovery of the scheme, and Samuel Ngando Mbongue, Director of Accounting and Treasury, who was sacked with four other employees. A complaint has been filed on 1 June 2016 by BICEC lawyers, at the criminal court in Douala, the economic capital of the country, where the bank headquarters are located.

In light of this discovery of embezzlement, we learn, BICEC, which made a net income of FCfa 4.5 billion in 2015, a 63% decrease over the year, has been unable to distribute dividends to its shareholders, including the State of Cameroon which has 17.5% shareholding in this banking institution.

BRM

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Rita Akana

16.Jul.2016

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In a bid to boost tourism attraction in Cameroon, an entrepreneur, Mathieu Onguene has introduced a new way for tourists to enjoy sights.

In Ebolowa, a town in Southern Cameroon, unmanned vehicles also known as drones are being used to capture new aerial footage of some landmarks.

Onguene is one of the growing number of entrepreneurs who use drones to monitor large agricultural plantations and construction sites, which would prove difficult and dangerous for some other people.
He said he likes seeing images of Ebolowa town from a different perspective adding that drone tour cost between 170 and $250.

“My use of drones is mainly to take images of the different parts of the city. Of course we also use it to highlight some of the best tourist sites because seen from above, some of the sites have an even bigger impact on people,“he said.

The ministry of Malawi and UNICEF recently launched a project where drones would carry AIDS screening tests and results between hospitals in rural areas.

In May, Rwanda also introduced a project that deliver medical supplies to remote areas using drones.

In Cameroon, the growing use of drones has created an interest and a space for young innovators like William Elong.

“There is a lot being done today in Cameroon to try and manufacture drones locally. There is a lot of talent and knowledge, it’s not just me. What we want to do with this ,“he adds.

Cameroon like many other countries is yet to introduce comprehensive laws to monitor the use of commercial drones.

“The main challenge for Cameroon today is to regulate the use of drones. For example, we should be able to identify drones that are flown. We also need to define the areas and zones in which drones cannot fly,“said technology expert Beaugas-Orain Djoyum.

However, experts say the use of drones has some implications.

Apart from proper regulation, the device can crash and pose potential safety risk if not properly used.

Although some companies in the US and elsewhere for cheaper and faster delivery, but there are hurdles ranging from the risk of colliding with airplanes and longevity.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

15.Jul.2016

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The Government of Israel together with the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO has donated some Communication and laboratory equipment to the Cameroon government to help in fighting the spread of the bird-flu virus.

The equipments were handed over to the Minister of Livestock Fisheries and Animal Industries Dr. Taiga yesterday 13th July 2016 by representatives of FAO and the Ambassador of Israel.

while receiving the equipment, the Minister of Livestocks appreciated the donors saying that it has come to boost the poultry sector of the country which was already witnessing a collapse six weeks ago after the outburst of the avian influenza.

It should be noted that since the upsurge of the avian Influenza Virus at the Mfoundi Division in Yaounde and parts of the West and the Adamaoua Regions, a total of 50,000 birds have been curled.

The Government of Cameroon on its part has spent hundreds of millions FCFA to disinfect the premises so as to protect the international market from a fall since 50% of Cameroon's poultry products are being exported.

CRTV

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Rita Akana

15.Jul.2016

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Since June 2014, date on which the British investment fund Actis took over the electricity company of Cameroon, over 161,000 new connections to the power grid were completed as at end June 2016, bringing to 975,018 the number of clients of the electricity production and distribution company, we learned from reliable sources.

According to Eneo, concessionaire of the public electricity service who revealed these figures in a document sent to the local public authorities, and of which Invest in Cameroon was privy; this volume of new connections was only achieved after taking some measures to optimise yields on this activity segment.

These are, we learn, the reduction in the prepaid consumption for household connections, the simplification of the procedures for power grid connection applicants, the establishment of an online agency to enable users to submit their request without needing to go to an office, or the increase in the connection material stock to have a better responsiveness of the teams when requested.

This ongoing improvement in the accessibility to the power grid in Cameroon for the past two years, according to our sources, is also due to the establishment of a new contractual framework between Eneo and its connection activities subcontractors, in order to improve the speed of execution of requested works.

BRM

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Rita Akana

14.Jul.2016

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Devaluation of the Nigerian currency, the naira, took effect on 20 June 2016.This monetary adjustment by the authorities of the leading economy on the African continent, which shares a border of around 2500 km with Cameroon, should have repercussions on commercial trade between these two countries.

Already crowned with the status of 2nd supplier to Cameroon behind China, according to the Ministry of Finance Department of Economic Affairs' statistics; Nigeria provided 13.8 and 17.9% of Cameroonian imports in 2013 and 2014 (against 14.2 and 18% for China), should see its position strengthened in the coming months, according to experts.

"On the commercial level, the naira devaluation could result in the growth of imports of Nigerian products by neighbouring countries like Cameroon", the economist Henri Ngoa Tabi, lecturer in the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management at the University of Yaoundé II-Soa, explained to the government daily paper. Indeed, he explains, since the "devaluation reduces the price of Nigerian exported goods in foreign currency", their "competitiveness in price in foreign countries strengthens and their consumption by foreigners grows. Exports grow".

On the other hand, maintains the same source, because of this devaluation of the Nigerian currency, "exports from neighbouring countries like Cameroon could decrease in volume, as their cost becomes higher". While hastening to state that these "effects on volume are not immediate", Henri Ngoa Tabi remarks that in similar circumstances, "foreign exports, when faced with an unfavorable devaluation, simply reduce their margin (price in foreign currency) in such a way as to maintain the price in naira unchanged. Competiveness of these goods will therefore not be affected".

BRM

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Rita Akana

13.Jul.2016

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