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NFOR Hanson Nchanji
Cameroon ministry of economy, planning and regional development has made public the 2015 project log book earlier than expected. Many were anticipating that President Biya’s sleeping cabinet would release the log book late. However, a wakeup call from their boss in his previous speeches gave them a warning. The project log book published online covers the entire nation and enumerates the distribution of public investment budget.
In addition to the security and health considerations, consolidating and strengthening the performance culture of Cameroon's Public Administration is the main priority for this year. This year’s Public Investment Budget, PIB, has an overall budget of 1 150 billion, against 1,000 billion in 2014, an increase of 15%. Also, the 2015 PIB is 30, 7% of the State budget, against 30.2% in 2014, an increase of 0.5 points.
This increase according to the Ministry of Economy is to show government's willingness to implement the decentralization policy by allocating resources mainly foe the local citizens. The PIB focuses mainly on infrastructure sectors, production, education and health, which record 41%, 23%, 19.6% and 12.3% of the overall amount transferred respectively.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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By NFOR Hanson Nchanji
Unscrupulous bar owners paid a huge price in Yaoundé on Saturday the 3rd of January when the national syndicate of exploiters of Cameroon beverage accompanied by competent authorities made an impromptu visit to some depots and discovered that some business men had increase prices of beer contrary to governments warning against the hike.
Their depots were sealed pending accompanied sanctions. Since the 2015 finance law increased taxes paid by brewery companies in Cameroon, which saw the modification of excise duty, from 25 to 40%, some bar owners have taken upon themselves to increase prices of beer even without an official statement from the Ministry of Commerce.
The controversy Cameroon Concord gathered came as a result of purchases made last year by some wholesalers who bought lots of drinks and stored them. They are now exploiting the new taxation increase to sell at a new price, which they bought at a discount in 2014. Some of these wholesalers created shortage to have reason for the increase. The Cameroon government through the minister of commerce has reiterated that there should be no such increase of prices of beer, at least not for now.
The national Union of Cameroon beverage exploiters (Synedeboc) is calling on the Cameroonian government to reconsider its decision on the 2015 finance law. According to body, increasing excise duty without increasing prices is a burden on operators of drinking spots and thus reduce their regular profit margins.
The Cameroonian government is blamed for their Bafia dance; it was the MINCOMMERCE that announced in late 2014 that prices of beer were going to increase but later reversed that decision when wholesalers had already created artificial scarcity.
Brewery companies for their part hold that prices this 2015 remains the same. Consumption of beer in Cameroon has increased by 20 million hectoliters a year, from about 600 in 2012 to 650 millions of hectoliters in 2014. Cameroonians are slaves to beer; they are ready to buy a bottle even at brake neck prices. When prices of fuel increased, they cried foul but when it was rumored prices of beer would increase; no one was ready to raise an alarm.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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The government of Cameroon is making a cleanup of its old containers in accordance with a prescription made last November by the Cameroonian Minister of Transport, Robert Nkili, to accelerate the decongestion of the port of Douala.
The dealer of the container terminal at the port area, Douala International Terminal (DIT) has launched on the 28th December 2014, the transfer operation of containers which have spent more than 90 days to the terminal.
Douala International Terminal (DIT) will transfer nearly 1,000 from the dedicated container terminal of the port of Douala, to a new area of 3 hectares which can accommodate 2,900 twenty-foot containers, housed in the area called CACEU-Cotco. .
According to the statement released by Douala International Terminal, “the transfer will allow the spaces and flow of operations with the following impacts: time saving, reduction of “dwell time”, reduction of intermediate movements of goods handling machines, acceleration of delivery time of containers to trucks, improvement of ships processing, increment of productivity of the terminal with a direct impact on the Cameroonian economy “.
In August 2014, according to the records of DIT, over 1,800 containers are still at the terminal of the port of Douala, which have lasted more than 90 days after landing. At the root of this transformation of the port area in the warehouse by economic operators, the low cost of port storage, compared to those charged by the owners of warehouses outside the port.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has launched a domestic SWIFT-style payment service to decrease dependence on Western financial services. “The new service will allow credit institutions to transmit messages in a SWIFT format through CBR to all Russia’s regions without restrictions,” said Ramilya Kanafina, the deputy head of the National Payment System Department at the CBR. Earlier in November, Kanafina had said the bank was creating its own system for transmitting financial messages, adding that it would go operational in a few months. On Friday, she said, “The system is already operating, and will be fully functional within six months.”
Russia has been hit with a series of sanctions by the US and the European Union (EU), which have accused Moscow of playing a role in the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, a claim Russia has repeatedly rejected. Russia has been witnessing a decline in the value of its currency, ruble, which is going through its worst crisis since 1998 due to the Western bans and dropping oil prices.
There has been talk of blocking Russian banks from using SWIFT among some EU members as well. SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has, however, insisted that it is not going to block Russian banks from using its services. SWIFT is a global banking transaction system used by most international banks. It securely carries information, including payment instructions, between financial institutions in 210 countries.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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Rita Akana
Just some few months after launching the sale of bonds by the Cameroon government, the Minister of Finance Alamine Ousmane Mey has revealed that of the 150 billion initially expected by the State of Cameroon in 2014, 153 billion has been gotten from the exercise. The announcement was made during a press conference Minister Alamine Ousmane gave this Friday, December 26, 2014 at the Hilton Hotel in Yaoundé in the presence of the controversial government spokesman and Minister for Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary.
Minister Alamine also indicated that banks and financial institutions operating in Cameroon alone mobilized the sum of 100 billion FCFA. The remaining 53 billion CFA francs came through other subscribers. It should be recalled that on December 16, Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey gave a detail analysis on the intended use of 150 billion sought by the State of Cameroon. As a reminder, the subscription period of the bond issue in 2014 ranged from 24 November to 23 December 2014.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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Turkish Airlines is planning further growth in Africa in 2015 with at least six new destinations. Turkish already has the largest network in Africa among foreign carriers, overtaking Air France and Emirates as it has added a staggering 25 African destinations over the last three years.
By the end of 2015 Turkish will have at least 45 destinations in its African network across 30 countries. North Africa continues to account for most of its African capacity but Turkish also has established a large presence in east, central and west Africa.
Turkish is able to enter relatively thin underserved African markets by offering a myriad of connections to Europe, Asia and the Americas. Narrowbody aircraft have been the driver of its African expansion strategy as it has used 737-900ERs to open up destinations as far as seven hours from Istanbul.
Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil said on the sidelines of the 17-Dec-2014 Star Alliance executive meeting in Delhi that six of the 15 destinations the carrier plans to add in 2015 will be in Africa. This includes two unnamed destinations in Egypt, Abuja in Nigeria, Bamako in Mali, Conakry in Guinea and Juba in South Sudan.
Among the six planned new African destinations Turkish so far has only set a launch date and begun sales for Abuja, which will be served five times weekly from 3-Mar-2015 with 737-900ERs. Abuja will be Turkish’s third destination in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano.
Turkish currently serves 39 destinations in Africa across 27 countries, according to OAG data. Bamako, Conakry and Juba will extend Turkish’s African network to 30 countries as the airline does not currently serve Mali, Guinea or South Sudan.
Turkish has not yet set launch dates for any of these routes, some of which are likely to be tagged to existing destinations, following the normal Turkish formula for expanding to thinner African markets. Conakry is also not expected to be launched until the Ebola virus, which has significantly impacted traffic in Guinea, subsides.
Turkish will be the fourth airline from outside Africa to serve Abuja, joining British Airways, Emirates and Lufthansa. It will be the third non-African airline in the Bamako market after Air France and TAP Portugal. Air France and Brussels Airlines serve Conakry while flydubai is the only non-African airline serving Juba, according to OAG data.
Turkish's presence in North Africa grows as Egyptian network expands
In Egypt Turkish already serves four destinations – Alexandria, Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. These are the four largest international airports in Egypt based on current seat capacity. There are currently another six airports in Egypt with international services but only three of these are significant (over 1,000 weekly seats) – Luxor, Marsa Alam and Sohag. All three could potentially support service from Turkish, particularly given the airline’s typical low frequency small aircraft strategy for serving secondary markets in Africa.
The only African country that currently has more than four destinations is Algeria, where Turkish serves Algiers, Batna, Constantine, Oran and Tlemcen. Algeria and Egypt are logical markets for Turkish given their proximity to Istanbul. The two combined account for about one third of Turkish’s total African capacity.
North Africa overall accounts for 56% of Turkish’s total African capacity – or about 5% of its total global seat capacity. Central/West Africa and East Africa each account for approximately 20% of Turkish’s African seat capacity while Southern Africa, where Turkish currently has only one daily flight on an Istanbul-Johannesburg-Cape Town rotation, accounts for only about 5%.
Turkish is keen to pursue opportunities for expansion in all regions of Africa. In North Africa there are clearly expansion opportunities in Egypt, particularly as Egypt’s tourism sector gradually recovers. Turkish has about a 5% share of international seat capacity in Algeria and a slightly less than 3% share in Egypt. It has about 8,600 weekly seats in Algeria and about 14,000 weekly seats in the larger Egyptian market, according to CAPA and OAG data.
Turkish has the largest African network
The six new destinations will also extend the gap between Turkish and its rivals in the Gulf, which have also been pursuing rapid expansion in Africa. Emirates currently serves 22 destinations in Africa while Qatar Airways has 19 and Etihad only seven, according to OAG data.
Air France has the second largest African network after Turkish among European carriers with 34 destinations. Turkish is categorised as a European carrier and is a member of the Association of European Airlines but strategically is more like a Gulf carrier. Turkish also competes more with the Gulf carriers given Istanbul’s location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, including for passengers travelling between Africa and Asia. European and Gulf carriers both compete for Africa-Europe and Africa-North America traffic.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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