The Entrepreneur - Cameroon's Premier Economic & Business Journal

Climate Change Brings New Diseases

Tropical and sub-tropical diseases are spreading globally. Climate change has shaped new environmental conditions, in which mosquitoes and vermin move to temperate zones. The author shows how the global increase of temperatures allows a dramatic acceleration of disease transmission and incubation. Developing countries are facing the biggest threats, as their public health systems and hygiene conditions are weak and vulnerable...MORE

Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away

The US looks at Iran as a country of religious radicalism and terrorist activities in the Middle East. This article points out how the US was responsible for putting an end to democratic government in Iran and how even today principles of democracy are deeply rooted in the country. Thousands of Iranians, with courage and tenacity, have denounced the recent dubious elections...MORE

USA: Rebranding War & Occupation

Barack Obama promised a major shift in U.S. foreign policy. However, after five months in office, Obama's policies seem to reflect considerable continuity with earlier administrations. He has raised U.S. military spending and has added more than 20,000 troops in Afghanistan.  It is clear that U.S. foreign policies are largely formed by long-standing economic and political interests and not so much by the electoral process..MORE

G-8 and Global Food Security

The L’Aquila Statement on Global Food Security
 
The “L’Aquila” Joint Statement on Global Food Security - “L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI)” released today, 10 July 2009, highlights deep concern among the world’s largest economies about global food security (click here to read it). It reiterates the urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty. The statement connects food security with economic growth, social progress, political stability and peace and advocates increased and targeted investment to enhance agricultural productivity. It links the need for effective actions on global food security to those related to climate change, sustainable management of water, land, soil and other natural resources, including the protection of biodiversity. It also emphasizes the need for cross-cutting, inclusive approaches involving all relevant stakeholders at global, regional and national levels and highlights the need for particular attention to smallholders, women and families and on expanding knowledge and training among many other areas.

Democratise or be isolated, Obama warns Africa

By Allan Odhiambo 

African nations, perennially dogged by governance woes, are faced with tight options after US President Barrack Obama said in Ghana that America would only do business with democratic nations. President Obama’s speech in Ghana on Saturday, July 11, 2009, sounded more like a warning to the regimes in Kenya and Zimbabwe as he accused African governments of tribalism and corruption, saying historical factors like colonialism were no longer tenable for the continent’s lagging behind.

What Can Obama & Ghana do for Each Other?

By Franklin Cudjoe, Bright B. Simons & Kofi Bentil

When President Barack Obama steps foot in Ghana on the 10th of July 2009, he will be walking into one of the very few global contexts where George Bush will be a hard act to follow: “development aid to Africa”. The shocking fact, for many a Western Liberal or African Development Activist, is that George Bush Jr. gave more so-called “development aid” to Africa than any American President in history. In 2006, when the man synonymous today with cluster bombs on the Hindu Kush announced a goal to take annual American assistance to Africa to the $9 billion figure, observers scratched their heads in befuddlement, and perplexed about the connection between neoconservative doctrine and geopolitical do-goodism refused to analyse any further the implications for the African continent.

Obama set for emotional visits to Vatican, Ghana

By Charles Babington

President Barack Obama is ending three days of often-wonkish policy discussions with fellow world leaders to embark on two of the most photogenic and emotional events of his young presidency: meeting the pope at the Vatican and becoming the first black American president to visit a mostly black African country. He was throwing in a televised news conference from Italy for good measure. Obama, his wife and daughters were to meet Pope Benedict XVI shortly before leaving Italy late Friday for Ghana. The two men have spoken by phone but not met before, aides say.

Cameroon treasury's oil earnings down 60 percent

By Tansa Musa

Falling production levels and a slump in oil prices have led to a 60 percent drop this year in contributions to the treasury from Cameroon's state oil company, the firm said in a statement. Like other commodity-driven economies in Central Africa, Cameroon has been hit by lower oil prices, compounded by a drop in production which, for the first four months of 2009, was more than 23 percent down on the same period last year.Cameroon became a modest oil exporter in 1977, with production peaking at 185,000 barrels per day in 1985 before declining sharply to around 85,000 barrels in recent years.

IMF Approves US$144.1 Million Disbursement for Cameroon

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved an SDR 92।85 million (about US$144.1 million) disbursement under the rapid access component of the Exogenous Shocks Facility (ESF) to help Cameroon weather the effects of the global shocks on its balance of payments. The approval enables the disbursement of the full amount immediately. The IMF financial assistance will help contain the decline in Cameroon’s foreign reserves and ensure that priority outlays (investment, health, and education) are protected.

Petronas, Noble sign Cameroon energy exploration deal

Malaysia's Petronas and U.S. company Noble Energy have signed a $119 million oil and gas exploration deal with Cameroon's state oil firm, the Cameroonian company said on Tuesday. The seven-year contract covers an area off the West African country's main port of Douala which has estimated reserves of 40-70 million barrels of oil, Cameroon's National Hydrocarbon Company (SNH) said in a statement.If commercial hydrocarbons are discovered, Cameroon could take a 25 percent stake in the production, while the contractor could be granted a 25-year exclusive exploitation licence, renewable once for 10 years for oil, and 35 years, renewable once for 10 years for gas. Cameroon produces around 85,000 barrels of oil per day, which it hopes to increase with both on and offshore projects. Noble Energy, Petronas and SNH are already partners in Yoyo, a gas project in Cameroon.//Reuters

Fako Celebrates Hon. Emilia Lifaka’s Political Achievements

By Christopher Ambe Shu

Proud of the political achievements of Hon. Emilia Monjowa , MP for Fako West constituency and elite of Fako Division of the Southwest region of Cameroon, the Buea Sub- divisional Conference of Traditional Rulers in collaboration with their peers in the towns of Limbe, Tiko and Muyuka, as well as Fako elite, last Saturday June 27, organized in Buea what was generally described as a hectic civic reception in her honor.

Here Comes Another Government

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

Cameroon has been in suspense for over a year, waiting for a new government. The arguments for a new government were many: the PM seemed to be bugged down by rumours about his involvement in the Presidential plane scandal – the so-called albatross affair – and actually had sessions; with the judicial police; rumours about deals in Bakassithat led to the death of many Cameroonian soldiers,including the DO of Kumbo Abedimo; the helplessness of government as Limbe was taken control of and ransacked by an armed band that went scot-free; the February 2008 uprisings fuelled by a mixture of anger against constitutional;amendments and generalised price hikes...
 

Gamberge, Pertinence de L' intelligence et Orthopraxisme

par Mathias Victorien Ntep

  Les problèmes que connaissent la plupart des pays de notre village planétaire sont essentiellement d´ordre intellectuel. C´est la raison pour laquelle il est plus qu´urgent de cogiter sur la place et la fonction de l´ « intellectuel » dans toute société. La culture de la flemmardise et de la fraude qui semble avoir pris possession de la plupart des Camerounais, attitude qui mine, à n´en point douter, tout élan vers la prospérité de la collectivité nationale, dérive de la torpeur intellectuelle qui sévit actuellement dans notre pays.

President Sarkozy Booed off Gabon

By Mathias Victorien Ntep

When France´s president Sarkozy flew to Gabon last June 16, 2009, to attend the funeral of the late Omar Bongo Ondimba, it didn´t crossed his mind that the Gabonese would jeer and mock at him. Indeed, that is exactly what happened when the epitome of France got out of the car at the “Seaside Palace”, the presidential palace in Libreville, Gabon. As soon as former France´s president Jacques Chirac and President Sarkozy set their feet on the soil of the presidential palace, there was at first blush a weak-willed welcome, which immediately morphed into a volley of gibes such as: “We´re fed up with you, naff off!”, “France is ungrateful!”, “We´ve given you oil, manganese and timber!”, “ France wouldn´t be what she is today without Gabon!”, “Bandit! Thief!...”, “France, go away! We welcome China!” 

Cameroon president names new prime minister

By Tansa Musa

Cameroon's President Paul Biya appointed Philemon Yang, a former diplomat and senior official in the presidency, as prime minister in a government reshuffle on Tuesday, state media said. No reason was given for the removal of Ephraim Inoni, who had been premier for more than four years in the country of almost 19 million people, which has the biggest economy in central Africa.

Philemon Yang is Cameroon's New Prime Minister

The President of the Republic of Cameroon has appointed a new cabinet. The Cabinet comprises of recycled older members of previous ministerial appointments. The appointments provide an indication that the President is already strategising for the 2011 presidential race or succession. Having dropped a seasoned economist Chief Ephraim Inoni as Prime Minister, the President is seen playing chess as he appoints Mr Philemon Yang to pacify the more vocal rulling CPDM party officials and boisterous opposition politicians, all from the northwest region, from where the new Prime Minister hails.

Littoral Court of Appeal Nails Lapiro de Mbanga

By Snowsel Ano-Ebie

Cameroon’s popular musician Lapiro de Mbanga now has to go to the Supreme Court, in his search for justice in the case of looting and complicity in the destruction of property in the town of Mbanga during the February 2008 riots. His nine month old appeal case at the Littoral Court of Appeal in Douala , has not turned out in favour of the popular musician.

Gabon: Bye Bye Bongo; And What Next?

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

Most African countries lived under colonial rule for longer than they have been independent. Gabon is one of them; like most French "colonies", it had its independence in 1960. This means that of some 49 years of independence, Bongo was on stage as president for 42 years (1967-2009) before his recent demise! How clearly did he see the future of Gabon? How clearly will the person who succeeds him see it?

Cameroon on My Mind...

Scholars missing from public debate

By Mike Eldon 

For some time now, I have been struck by the absence of academics from our national public debate. Of course I’m not saying there is a perfect professorial silence. But when we talk about the sectors of society from where we expect to hear regular, prominent and authoritative voices, they rarely feature. We’ll hear from representatives of civil society, of the private sector and of faith-based organisations; we’ll endlessly hear from politicians, and occasionally from the technocrats in the public service. But where are those whom we specifically pay to think, to be the manufacturers of new ideas, to be our objective and informed observers and analysts of society, the people to whom we should be turning for new solutions?

Message by Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma on World Environment Day 2009

The term ‘rising sea levels’ has real expression in the Maldives and Tuvalu. These and other low-lying states are effectively threatened with submergence. The tides have already risen, and wholesale migration is a possible response. The front lines have already been breached. Elsewhere in the Commonwealth, we see the effects of climate change in poor crop yields, destructive storms, shrinking rainforests, dwindling fish stocks, thawing tundra, encroaching desert, flooded lowlands.

The Cameroon Dilema

By Denis A. Foretia, Atlanta, USA

Progressive societies thrive not only from constructive government economic policies but equally from a significant growth in private sector investments and marked involvement of the citizenry. The upward mobility in certain African countries can be directly, or at least, partially attributable to the implementation of fair investment policies in these politically stable societies. For the last decade, we have witnessed continued erosion of democratic and social institutions in Cameroon. We have seen the increasing proliferation and institutionalization of many corrupt practices throughout every sector of government and private institutions. Not surprising, there has been no indication of a reduction in capital flight and the handicapping of investment opportunities in our country.

GABON: President Omar Bongo Crosses the Great Divide

By Mathias Victorien Ntep

It is now official, it is a fact: President Albert Bernard Bongo, commonly known as Omar Bongo Ondimba has been dispatched to the Great Beyond by bowel cancer – not skin cancer. The man who received the highest office of Gabon, an oil-rich country south of Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea, 42 years ago, kicked the bucket on June 7, 2009, at the age of 73 in a Spanish hospital in Barcelona.

An Agenda for Progress at a Time of Global Crisis: A Call for African Leadership

Crisis facing Africa can be turned into an opportunity

Panel of world leaders states that clear-sighted African leadership and international partnership are needed to contain the crisis and to pioneer a new development model

The Africa Progress Panel (APP), chaired by Kofi Annan, has called on African leaders to turn the current global economic meltdown into an opportunity for the continent on the basis of shared responsibility with their international partners. The financial crisis has underscored Africa’s vulnerability, notwithstanding a decade of solid progress, the APP said at the launch of its annual report today. The key conclusion of the report is that Africa needs to drive its own development agenda as the basis for partnership and shared responsibility for progress. “The global economic crisis can serve as a wake-up call for both African leaders and their international partners,” the Panel said.

As Global Financial Crises Bites.....

Nigeria Awaits Appointment of New Central Bank Governor

By Damilola Olajide
 
As the nation awaits the new helmsman at the Central Bank of Nigeria to be
confirmed, there are anxieties over the monetary and fiscal policies that
will be pursued by the apex bank during his tenure. The fears are
predicated on what successive apex bank governors did: discontinue with
the policies of their predecessors. While it is uncertain if there won't
be policy change, what is important is whatever the monetary and fiscal
policies change might be, the bank consolidation needs to be sustained and
not reversed.

'Africa needs Trade, not Aid'...Says Roger Helmer

Some people say that Africa needs "A new Marshall Plan" of massive aid to drag it out of poverty and set it on the road to prosperity and self-sufficiency.  Yet they seem unaware that in the last fifty years, Africa has received the equivalent of five Marshall Plans in foreign aid. Yet many African countries are getting poorer.  Aid breeds dependency.  It undermines self-respect and enterprise.  It creates perverse incentives. For example, both African leaders and the major aid agencies and NGOs have an incentive to present African countries as poverty-stricken and dependent, in order to maintain the flow of aid.

Kofi Annan, Michel Camdessus, Graça Machel, and Linah Mohohlo to launch Africa Progress Panel 2009 State of Africa Report

Major new report assesses the threat of the economic crisis on Africa ’s development, analyses the continent’s progress and issues new recommendations to G8 and African leaders

 

Time:              14:00-14.45 local time (13:00-13:45 GMT+1), Wednesday 10^th June 2009

Venue:            WEF on Africa - Press Conference Room, Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town , South Africa

African states seek 500 million euros in EU banana deal

By Darren Ennis and Bate Felix

Africa's top banana export countries sought on Friday 500 million euros ($694 million) in compensation from the European Union as part of a deal to end the world's longest-running trade dispute. Talks drag on at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva between the EU and Latin America's leading banana suppliers aimed at reducing import tariffs and end the "banana wars" that have dragged on since the 1990s.

To be rich like them, find out how they made it

A new book 'Rich Like Them' by Ryan D’Agostino follows in the tradition of 'The Millionaire Next Door' and 'The Difference': It interviews a large group of millionaires in order to figure out what traits they have in common. 'Rich Like Them' takes this tactic and runs in a slightly different direction with it. The author identified the 50 richest zip codes in the United States and went to 49 of them. He literally went door to door, knocking on the doors of people in these communities, and asking them if they’d be willing to discuss how they “made it.”

Whose Will Constitutes 'Political Will'?

In discussing governance reform efforts that have not worked, the phrase 'political will' comes up a lot, usually in the formulation 'lack of political will'. But it appears that the phrase is so elastic it is becoming meaningless. So, what really is 'political will'? Or, better still, whose will constitutes 'political will'? In international development, 'political will' tends to mean this: we got the government to agree to a program of reform, either to accept a grant or take a loan designed to pay for the program. The leading government official involved in the process is known at 'The Champion'. Soon enough, in most cases, 'political will' means 'we have a champion  Read more...

A "Global" Economic Crisis? Mind the Frame

“Global problems require global solutions,” a newspaper editorial recently asserted in its analysis of the current economic crisis. From a communication studies perspective, stressing a particular aspect of an issue – in this case, the global nature of the crisis -- is called “framing.” To further one’s position, advocates frame an issue by emphasizing some aspects of the phenomenon and deemphasizing others. Contrasting frames on economic issues have been ubiquitous in the media for some time. Compare, for example, the ways in which The Economist and CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight interpret economic realities. Given the current crisis, the framing battle is even more apparent. Protectionists might prefer to focus on a country’s deteriorating local job market and claim that the most pressing need is for government to protect domestic employment or a “domestic jobs frame.” In contrast, those who believe in free markets might argue that protectionist policies will lead to contracting national economies and that the solution is greater liberalization or a “free trade frame.” Read more...

Health: Weal and Woe of the Sun

By Mathias Victorien Ntep

Summer is around the corner so your average punter is getting ready to rush to the sun to enjoy its warmth. Yet most people aren’t aware of the weal and the woe of the sun—While the sun’s ultraviolet rays are a source of Vitamin D, which enhances the strength of human bones, ultraviolet rays do beget sunburns. This can result in skin cancer.  Unlike dark-skinned people, fair-complexioned folks are particularly prone to skin cancer because their skin doesn’t contain much melanin. Fair-skinned people lack enough melanin because their body simply doesn’t optimally transform the tyrosine into melanin.

Stop giving us aid, say Africans

By Daniel Hannan

I've just been talking to a very clever man. He's called Thompson Ayodele,he's from Nigeria and he thinks that overseas aid is making Africancountries poorer. The statistics he produces are jaw-dropping. Theysuggest a direct correlation between the receipt of development assistanceand low growth. This is true whether you compare neighbouring countries,or whether you look at different periods within the same country. Foreign aid, he suggests, isn't useless; it's actively harmful. It discourages enterprise, fosters dependency and bolsters corrupt regimes. Asimilar correlation exists between debt remission and insolvency:countries which have their bills periodically written off becomere-indebted more quickly than countries which don't.

Fake drugs kill over 700,000 people every year - new report

A new report co-sponsored by International Policy Network (London) and Initiative for Public Policy Analysis (Nigeria) details the shocking burden of fake drugs in less developed countries. The report notes that fake tuberculosis and malaria drugs alone are estimated to kill 700,000 people a year. That’s equivalent to four fully laden jumbo jets crashing every day. The report lays bare the ballooning problem of counterfeit and substandard drugs, which can constitute one third of the drug supply in certain African countries. These dodgy drugs result in unnecessary death and increased levels of drug resistance.

Cameroon 2008 - 2009 Sugar Output Rises 8 percent Despite Smuggling

By Tansa Musa

Cameroonian sugar maker SOSUCAM, the biggest sugar producer in the six-nation Central African economic zone, boosted output by 8 percent year-on-year in 2008/09, despite illegal imports, the firm said on Thursday. SOSUCAM, Cameroon's third biggest employer, has produced 130,000 tonnes of sugar products this season, which oficially ends later this month, up from 120,000 tonnes last year, Jerome Harel, special adviser to the executive general manager, said. The company grows and processes sugar in Cameroon and intends to increase production to more than 200,000 tonnes by 2010, in order to meet local demand.

Africa's Stolen Money and The Western Media

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Quite often when you read newspapers, listen to radio and watch television in the West you learn how poor Africans are and how corrupt African leaders are. But you will never watch, read or hear anything in these media outlets about the role being played by Western banking institutions; property development and estate companies; the big corporations; and the western political and business elite in promoting corruption in Africa.

Capitalism: Be Enlightened or Vanish

By Mathias Victorien  Ntep
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

William E. B. Dubois, the father of the “Harlem Renaissance”, deemed that capitalism was and still is anti-human and anti-rational. The current financial and economic crisis that´s jarring the globe is vindicating him to such an extent that the common ruck in Europe henceforth views bankers and financial markets traders as professional thieves and crooks.

Baka Beyond ‘Beyond The Forest’ : CD Album (Hare Music/ MAHACD 28)

"It swings like crazy and deserves to be top of the World charts."...Joe Boyd

If you have never heard Baka Beyond before prepare for something of unique and unusual beauty; if you know Baka Beyond you will no doubt agree that “Beyond The Forest” is their best work yet. The haunting, mystical vocals on the album were recorded on a solar-powered 8-track machine in the middle of the Cameroon rainforest which has been inhabited by the Baka Pygmies, an ethnic group of hunter-gatherers, for thousands of years.  At night time the Baka Pygmy women perform powerful ritual singing (“yelli”) to ensure a successful hunt. Back in the UK, Baka Beyond leader Martin Cradick deconstructed the original interwoven vocal lines and replaced some voices with bass and acoustic guitar.  The result is a stunningly beautiful, other-worldly album.  As well as offering a rare glimpse into an exquisite disappearing musical culture, buying this album also directly supports the Baka who face various problems such as being disenfranchised from the forest.

Cameroon's 'Operation Epervier' is a Miscarriage of Justice

By Snowsel Ano-Ebie

In the face of rampant corruption, attaining the status of a legal tender within the Cameroonian society, the government has resorted to desperate tactics to contain the phenomenon. The reactionary measures range from denying the reality of corruption, justifying corrupt practices, and attempting to combat individuals who have installed bastions of corruption within different spheres of national life.

Africa and Condoms: A Case of Morality in Reality

Nigeria's Bishops Weigh In on Pope's Comments

Since the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, during his recent trip to Africa made statement about condoms and the fight against AIDS in Africa, an unprecedented media campaign has been launched against that realistic reiteration of the Catholic Church's moral position on the matter. The latest of the attacks was from the Belgium Assembly. On April 2, the House of Representatives in Belgium asked the country's government to "condemn the unacceptable statements of the Holy Father on his journey to Africa and to protest officially to the Holy See."

An open Letter to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton by Albert S. Ngwana

ABORTION HAS DISASTROUS EFFECTS ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH

Since the agrarian revolution about 10,000 years ago, man has desired large families, for economic reasons, to cultivate big farms and become rich. Governments have encouraged large populations for economic, military, security, and social reasons. To do this, individuals resorted to polygamy and large families. Governments enacted laws and encouraged individuals to have many children.