Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Cameroon: 2005 Census Results Finally Published

According to the government of Cameroon, the population of Cameroon is now officially 19.4 million (19,406,100) as of January 1, 2010. This figure is a projection derived from the Population & Housing Census of November 2005, and based on an estimated national population growth rate of 2.6% since then.

Given the important role that census figures play in national life, from the allocation of state finances to the of distribution social and other services such as hospitals, schools, roads, including the allocation of parliamentary seats, etc., it is no surprise that these results are already mired in controversy with some either questioning the accuracy of the projections for the last five years, or simply accusing the government of having manipulated the results with an eye on future elections...

Critics point out, for example, that the "opposition" NW province, which had a population of 1.7 million in 2005, is now projected to have increased by a mere 75,000 to about 1.8 million inhabitants, while the "pro-regime" North province with a population of 1.6 million in 2005 now has 2 million inhabitants - a startling increase of about 362,000 inhabitants - even more than that of the Littoral province, Cameroon's economic nerve center...). Government  officials have refuted these claims, pointing out that the projections were done by statisticians whose work has been validated by the Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

1. Regional breakdown of national population according to 2005 census results and 2010 projections

"Sovereignty Expenditures" and the Accountability of the Executive Branch

By Dibussi Tande

"As budget constraints have hardened, leaders have preferred to spend their money to keep their elite coalition together rather than invest in mundane activities like building schools or undertaking vaccine campaigns..." Van de Walle

While surfing through the Cameroonian blogosphere recently, I came across a blog post which gave a detailed breakdown of Cameroon’s 2010 budget. The first entry on the list was the budgetary allocation for the Presidency of the Republic which stands at 57,342 Billion Francs CFA – in fact over 63 Billion Francs CFA if you include the 6.677 Billion Francs CFA allocated to "Services attached to the Presidency of the Republic" – an annual budget greater than those of the Ministries of Higher Education (44 billion FCFA), Scientific Research and Innovation (13 billion FCFA), Energy and Power (44 Billion FCFA), just to name a few.

As I pondered over the Presidency’s budget, my mind went back to the controversy that erupted last year after the French media revealed that during a three-week trip to La Baule in France, President Biya and his entourage had allegedly spent $40,000 (£24,500) every single day at the five-star L'Hermitage Barriere hotel, bringing the total presidential bill to roughly half a million pounds.

2010 Economic Freedom Index: Cameroon Ranked 132nd & Economy "Mostly Unfree”

Cameroon has been ranked 132nd (with 52.3 pts) out of 179 countries in the 2010 Economic Freedom Index: compiled by The Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation. Cameroon also ranked 25th among 46 African countries. According to the report on Cameroon,

"Cameroon faces challenges common to developing African nations: inefficient bureaucracy, an unreliable legal system, and poor infrastructure. Restrictive regulations hurt employment and productivity growth. Restrictions on trade are common, and the weak judicial system allows pervasive corruption and erodes the potential for long-term economic growth.”

Cameroon's lowest grade (40.5) was in Freedom from Corruption and its highest (74.2) was in Trade freedom.

Government Bribes in Cameroon Divert Funds From Food

By Alison Fitzgerald and Christopher Swann (Bloomberg.com)

Cameroon has budgeted $309 million for the military in 2009 and $105 million for the president’s office and services to the presidency, compared with $106 million for agriculture, which employs 70 percent of its people.

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Mbanda Leo Ganglii, like any farmer in Cameroon, must contend with roads that turn to mud in the rainy season and fertilizer prices he can’t afford. And then there is government corruption.

A local agriculture official demanded a $572 kickback from a $1,850 government contract to provide plantain seedlings for other farmers, Ganglii said. After refusing, he said he was warned that the deal might not be renewed.

Life in Douala, One of the World's Most Expensive Cities

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

When she lost her mother and daughter three years ago, 50-year-old Kanmegne Marie Odile moved to Douala, Cameroon's business hub, leaving behind her home village, Kekem, in east Cameroon.

By selling herbs used to treat medical illnesses, she makes about US$1 per day. She and her five children spend everything she earns.

Increasingly, she finds it hard to even make that much. "Competition is fierce and customers scarce," Kanmegne told IRIN. In the small market near her home in Bepanda, a crowded high-traffic area of Doula, she says there are always at least five women selling what she does, aloe vera plants.

US Ambassador: Why America Investors, Tourists Avoid Cameroon

Culled from Eden Newspaper      

"If you look at the World Bank report on Doing Business, you will realise that Cameroon is backwards and much still needs to be done." US Ambassador to Cameroon, Janet Garvey.

Despite having huge potentials for tourism,and with government making efforts to attract more investors to Cameroon, the U.S Ambassador to Cameroon, Janet Garvey says the cumbersome visa procedure at Cameroon Embassy in Washington DC is diverting American tourists from making Cameroon a destination, while at the same time administrative bottlenecks and an unfriendly fiscal and tax policy are scaring American investors from the country.

Government of Cameroon on PR Offensive in the United States

By Dibussi Tande

The July/August 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs (an influential American journal on international relations published by the Council on Foreign Relations) carries a “sponsored country report” on Cameroon titled "Cameroon at Crossroads".
 
This advertising supplement was produced by the Washington, DC-based lobbying firm, SML Strategic Media (SML), in collaboration with Stratline Communication, a PR firm with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

BBC Interview: Veronique Edwards Takes on Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni

Cameroon's Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni was in London to seek investors who may help him develop the country. But Cameroon has long been criticised for being one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Veronique Edwards wanted to know from prime minister Enoni whether the country was ready for investors. 10th July 2008 (Source BBC World Service)

Click here to listen to interview (4 mins 45 secs)

Postcard from Yaounde: Navigating a Real Oil Shock

By Vivienne Walt (Originally published in Time Magazine)

Americans wincing over paying four dollars a gallon at the gas pump ought to meet John Gwat. The taxi driver in Cameroon's capital is paying six dollars a gallon, but in a country where the average monthly wage is about $180 — approximately one-tenth of the average American income.


And like American consumers, there's precious little that Gwat and other taxi drivers here can do about the gas prices at the gas pumps. "At the end of the month about a quarter of the cars are just parked on the streets, because no one has the money to buy fuel," he says. Then, when Cameroonians (at least those with jobs) receive their salaries at the end of the month, Yaoundé's streets are once again jammed with traffic.

Who's In Charge of Cameroon - The IMF or the Biya Regime?

"While reductions in tariffs and duties are not likely to disturb the IMF... it is more likely to be concerned about Biya’s pledge to review fuel price policies... A “benchmark” under the plan for evaluating Cameroon’s compliance with IMF conditions is price hikes for gasoline, oil, and diesel."

In her book on Development and Good Governance in Africa, Rita Abrahamsen argues that in Africa, "economic liberalization creates problem for the majority - who democracy seeks to serve. Leaders therefore are confused about whether to satisfy external donors or to satisfy the aspirations of its people for both are irreconcilable constituencies".

She adds that "Demands of economic liberalization by donor institutions have eroded democratic standards because they bring poverty to the people through SAP. SAP denies the masses benefits from the government, thereby threatening 'the consolidation of democracy by exacerbating social conflict and differentiation, while at the same time undermining the state's capacity to respond to domestic demands'" (Cited in African Studies Quarterly ).

Cameroon: What Next After Debt Relief?

By Iacovos Ioannou and Raju Singh (IMFSurvey, June 18 2007, Vol. 36, No. 10, pp. 154 – 155)

A year ago, Cameroon received debt relief under two major international initiatives, clearing the way for a write-down of its external debt from about 40 percent of GDP in 2005 to 5 percent of GDP in 2006. Cameroon is now poised to make faster progress toward improving living conditions and reducing poverty.  But how is this resource-rich West African country making use of the breathing space created by debt relief, and can it get onto a higher growth trajectory that would edge it closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?

2007 World Index of Economic Freedom: Cameroon ranked 117th

The 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, jointly published by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, was released this month. Hong Kong and Singapore are the world's two economically freest countries with scores of 89 and 86 percent free respectively. At the bottom of the pile are North Korea and Cuba with freedom scores of 3 percent and 30 percent respectively. 

According to the index, Cameroon’s economy is 54.4 percent free, making it the world’s 117th freest economy. Cameroon is also ranked 22nd out of 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa:

Doing Business 2007: Yet Another Annual Survey, Still the Same Old Story for Africa

A delegation of about 100 business executives from francophone Africa (about 70% of them from Cameroon), are in Chicago for the secondannual food and technology business forum which begins tomorrow. Jointly organized by The United States Embassy, Cameroon, the U.S. Regional commercial service in Dakar/Abidjan and ChicagoMidwest Corporation, the business forum is an opportunity for African business executives to meet with American companies and organs of the U.S. government that support international trade.

Cameroon Drops Nine Places on the 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) Rankings

Cameroon has dropped from the 99th to the 108th position on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) rankings for 2006-2007 released this week by the World Economic Forum (WEF). 

According to the WEF, the index “contains a detailed country/economy profile for each of the 125 economies featured in the study, providing a comprehensive summary of the overall position in the Index rankings as well as a guide to what are considered to be the most prominent competitive advantages and competitive disadvantages of each.”

2006 Economic Freedom of the World Report: Cameroon 102nd out of 130

Cameroon has dropped three positions in the 2006 Economic Freedom of the World Report released on Thursday by the Cato Institute in conjunction with the Fraser Institute. Although the country's score is the same as last year's (5.6 out of 10), it has nonetheless dropped from the 99th to the 102nd position (tying with Nigeria and Mali). The report surveyed 130 countries and used data from 2004, with 1970 as its base.

The Untouchables: Politically Mediated Loans and Political Impunity in Cameroon

Dibussi Tande

In his 1993 study on accumulation and the cultural politics of identity in the Grassfields (in Pathways to Accumulation in Cameroon), Michael Rowlands observed that in Cameroon, there was a “natural affinity between the stream of power and the stream of money or credit”.  He argued that the country was plagued by "an ethos of ostentatious consumption" and by "unproductive patterns of investment and reliance on the state patronage for accumulation".  The surest path to the accumulation of wealth in Cameroon was through politics.

The State of Information & Communications Technologies in Cameroon: A Government Perspective

Cameroon: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Third Annual Progress Report
Published: July 18, 2006
Series: IMF Country Report No. 06/260 (70 Pages)
Format: Electronic (free) & Paper (US$15.00)

The IMF today made public Cameroon's Third annual Progress Report which was submitted by that country's Government in February 2006,. The report is based on data which was valid as of December 31, 2005. According to the IMF, these country progress reports “describe the country's macroeconomic, structural, and social policies in support of growth and poverty reduction, as well as associated external financing needs and major sources of financing.”

HIPC Completion Point: The Challenge of Debt Sustainability

Dibussi Tande

On May 1, 2006 the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank confirmed that Cameroon had successfully reached the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. As a result, these institutions cancelled 1,400 billion CFA (2.1 billion euros, 2.7 billion dollars) of Cameroon’s 4,000-billion-CFA external public debt (See Press Release No. 06/85).

The decision of the donor institutions was received with elation within Government circles in Cameroon, and the official media has been painting the rosy picture of a new nation where the funds freed up as a result of the debt relief will be "reinvested in the fight against poverty".

Strengthening Transparency in the Oil Sector in Cameroon

Stéphane Cossé. Strengthening Transparency in the Oil Sector in Cameroon: Why Does it Matter? IMF Policy Discussion Paper No. 06/02. March 23, 2006.

Summary: There has been a growing recognition of the importance of transparency for economic growth and social development in oil producing countries. This paper analyzes transparency issues in Cameroon's oil sector. It shows that, while substantial efforts have already been undertaken, continued action is necessary to strengthen transparency. The paper seeks to identify why and how transparency, especially in the fiscal area, matters for economic development and poverty reduction in Cameroon.