Business

The Banana Association of Cameroon (Assobacam) has revealed that banana dessert producers in Cameroon already exported 206,391 tonnes from January to October 2014. The leader in domestic production with peaks reaching 120,000 tonnes per annum, Société des plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), a subsidiary of the Marseille-based fruit company, is holding its position with 84,950 tonnes exported up to October 31, 2014.

The public agro-foods company, Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), comes in second with 67 689 tonnes in exports. Partnered with America’s Del Monte for its bananas, it also produces rubber and palm oil. The 2nd largest employer after the State, the CDC out-exported Société des bananeraies de la Mbome (44,076 tonnes) for the first ten months of 2014.

Based on Assobacam’s exports, May 2014 was very successful for Cameroonian producers, the PHP having exported 10,431 tonnes compared to the CDC’s 10,520.

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Ngwa Bertrand

27.Nov.2014

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Cameroon Minister of Finance Alamine Ousmane Mey has launched the third bond issue 2014-2019 in Douala. Subscriptions were opened on Tuesday and will run until 23 December 2014. They fall under the ECMR 150 billion CFA francs operation. The third bond issue launched by the State of Cameroon comes after those for 2010 (200 billion CFA francs) and 2013 (80 billion CFA francs). It was developed by the CBS Cameroon, the local subsidiary of the Moroccan banking group Attijariwafa.

To finance structural projects in the energy and infrastructure sector, the 3rd bond that goes from 2014 to 2019 will be paid at 5.5% net per year. In total, 15 million of bonds in the amount of 10,000 CFA francs each, will be issued. According Mr. Alamine Ousmane, the rate is down and "it reflects the enthusiasm continued expression of investors for Treasury bonds of the State of Cameroon". The Francophone finance minister also invited investors to trust in Cameroon.

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Ngwa Bertrand

27.Nov.2014

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Nigeria has devalued the naira, saying a drop in oil prices had made it hard to defend its currency. The country's bank central bank also raised interest rates from 12% to 13% in a bid to stem foreign reserve loses. Nigeria has spent billions of dollars defending the naira using "dwindling foreign reserves", the bank's governor said. Falling oil prices also affected the Angolan kwanza, which hit a record low against the dollar on Tuesday. The bank's governor Godwin Emefiele said: "Falling oil prices have consistently reduced the accretion to external reserves, thus constraining the ability of the bank to continually defend the naira and sustain the stability of the naira exchange rate." The bank moved the target band of the currency to 160-176 naira to the US dollar, compared with 150-160 naira previously. It also raised interest rates by 100 basis points.

Nigeria, which has one of the biggest economies in Africa, and is one of the continent's leading energy producers, has spent billions of dollars in the past year shoring up the naira, Mr Emefiele said. Foreign reserves stood at around $37bn (£23.5bn), down over 18% from a year ago. "Big surprises from the central bank," said Razia Khan, head of Africa research at Standard Chartered. "With these moves the central bank has shown absolute commitment to dealing with current challenges," she said. "They have not shied away from the tightening needed to sustain current FX [foreign exchange] reserves." Meanwhile, Angola's kwanza traded traded as low as 100.895 against the dollar before recovering some ground to 100.700 on Tuesday. Angola is Africa's biggest oil producer after Nigeria.

Culled from BBC

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Ngwa Bertrand

26.Nov.2014

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Cameroon moved to a nine-digit numbering system at midnight on 21 November. Cameroon Telecomunications network operators have been on a continued addition of digits to telephone numbers in the last few years, having passed to 7 digits in 2001 and to 8 digits in 2007. The rise in subscribers at Orange and MTN, as well as the market entry of Nexttel has accelerated demand. Operators informed their customers by SMS that they will have to use the prefix 6 to call their numbers. Fixed-line operator Camtel said consumers will have to use 243 instead of 22 or 33 to call its numbers.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Nov.2014

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Cameroon moved to a nine-digit numbering system at midnight on 21 November. Cameroon Telecomunications network operators have been on a continued addition of digits to telephone numbers in the last few years, having passed to 7 digits in 2001 and to 8 digits in 2007. The rise in subscribers at Orange and MTN, as well as the market entry of Nexttel has accelerated demand. Operators informed their customers by SMS that they will have to use the prefix 6 to call their numbers. Fixed-line operator Camtel said consumers will have to use 243 instead of 22 or 33 to call its numbers.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Nov.2014

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Cameroon moved to a nine-digit numbering system at midnight on 21 November. Cameroon Telecomunications network operators have been on a continued addition of digits to telephone numbers in the last few years, having passed to 7 digits in 2001 and to 8 digits in 2007. The rise in subscribers at Orange and MTN, as well as the market entry of Nexttel has accelerated demand. Operators informed their customers by SMS that they will have to use the prefix 6 to call their numbers. Fixed-line operator Camtel said consumers will have to use 243 instead of 22 or 33 to call its numbers.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Nov.2014

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