The Entrepreneur - Cameroon's Premier Economic & Business Journal

Quelle place pour l'Afrique dans les prévisions de la production mondiale de blé

L'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’Alimentation et l’Agriculture (FAO) a publié des prévisions préliminaires concernant la production mondiale de blé de 2011 qui prévoient une hausse de 3.4% par rapport à 2010. L'édition de mars de Crop Prospects and Food Situation prévoit un total de 676 millions de tonnes, ce qui marque une hausse par rapport à l'année dernière mais est toutefois inférieur aux récoltes exceptionnelles rentrées en 2008 et en 2009. Les plantations de blé dans de nombreux pays ont augmenté ou sont prévues d'augmenter en réponse aux prix forts.

Nigerian Elections And The North-South Divide

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

Before his appointment to head INEC, Professor Jega was reputed for his integrity and uprightness; he was known to be a bold, no-nonsense man. The pre-electoral briefings we got left us with no doubt that he enjoyed the trust of Nigerians across the political divide. Once he was appointed head of INEC, he made demands on the executive and legislative arm of government that he felt would allow the commission to organize free, fair, and credible elections.  He was given the budget he needed, and the electoral act was adjusted many times to meet his requests.  INEC, like ELECAM in Cameroon is not a legislator, but Jega did not spend his time reminding people about that!

Mute Conversations: A Review of David Scheler’s Casting for Meteors

Georgetown.  Finishing Line Press, 2011, 25pp. Paperback $14.00.ISBN978-1-59924-717-5

Reviewer: Peter Wuteh Vakunta

 
Scheler’s collection of poems is a kaleidoscope of sounds, visions, musings, and sensibilities. The poems echo the poet’s dogged engagement in substantive interpretation of the symbiotic relationship between man and nature.  By titling his anthology Casting for Meteors, the poet arrogates to himself the critical task of illuminating the quintessential nexus that links man to the natural world.  The long metaphor woven around the concept of ‘meteor’—celestial fiery streak or shooting star—constitutes the anchor around which these semantically laden poetic verses are woven. “Backwater” depicts the poet’s discourse on the physical environment: “Perched on a snag/ a blue heron scans for prey/beneath the speckled reflection/of his silent disguise” (6). Notice the poet’s savvy use of the term ‘disguise’ in a bid to underscore the cohabitation of reality and make-believe in contemporary society. The poet’s amorous communion with nature is evident in the following excerpt: “The sun breaks /her amber eyes/ seize mine” (7).  Evidently, the poet is in a love relationship with the sun to which he attributes feminine qualities.

Nigerian Elections: Well Done!

By Tazoacha Asonganyi
(NDI Election Observer)

The readers would probably have already heard or read by now that both local and international election observers have praised the Nigerian elections as a great improvement over past elections. They probably also heard or read that I was one of the international observers of the elections. Since the Nigerian elections are a momentous event shortly before our own elections in October 2011, it is worth sharing some experiences.

The elections were organized within the backdrop of the 2003 and 2007 elections in Nigeria which Nigerians say have gone down in history as the most flawed and the most fraudulent elections in the history of elections in the world. They say this in the isolation of their own experience, not knowing that if those elections were to be placed on the same league of most flawed and most fraudulent elections with those in Cameroon, Cameroon’s would occupy places higher up in the league than theirs. In any case, when you are with election experts like were found in the NDI delegation and get the cynical questions they ask you about Cameroon elections, you know that those conversant with election history know what passes in Cameroon for elections.

Enforcement of Intellectual Property Laws in Cameroon

By Grace Limunga Sama

With the advent of creativity, invention, and innovation, there was an increasing need for accrediting the works of authors. This was mainly to acknowledge exiting authors and even to encourage potential authors, thus the advent of IPRs. Legal principles governing IP have evolved over centuries but it was not until the 19th century that the terminology was used (Wikipedia, 2011). IPR is mostly recognised as one of the most important instrument for promoting economic, social, and cultural development for industrialised nations. This is in contrast in most developing countries as any further enforcement of IP laws is detrimental to their economies because they seek to acquire systems which favours learning by imitation or forgery. However there is a lot of controversy on this assertion because it is argued that protection of IPRs leads to development in an economy.

Enhancing Intellectual Property Rights in Cameroon

Challenges and the way forward

By Joe Eyong Assoua,

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines intellectual property as the creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, and images used in commerce. Intellectual property is divided into two categories: Industrial Property which includes patents for invention, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographical indications. Copyright which includes literary works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.

Ghana’s oil discovery: Lessons from Nigeria 'and Africa'

By Olajide Damilola

THE news filtered around the international media recently that Ghana will start pumping its oil, estimated to be a minimum of 1 billion barrels inreserve. However, this news has been met with both joy and fear. Joy because this means Ghana now joins the league of oil producing countries,with the attendant streams of petrol Dollar in revenue. There is the fear of the so-called oil resource ‘curse’ or the paradox of plenty - often used to describe a situation in which countries blessedwith abundance of natural resources such as oil tend to have worse economic and development outcomes. This economic phenomenon is sometimes called the Dutch disease.

Macroeconomics traditionally offers some insights into how the ‘blessing’of abundant natural resources might turned into a ‘curse’ overtime. This may occur when the revenue from oil exports initially leads to increase in real exchange rate and wages. This increase in turn will eventually damage the other productive or tradable sectors of the economy, such as the agriculture and manufacturing, as they become less competitive in worldmarkets. On the government front, the revenue from oil exports will more likelyresult in higher government spending (e.g. on education, health, etc.),but this is more likely to be financed through deficits in anticipation ofhigher oil revenue that are vulnerable to vagaries in world oil prices.

Nouchi—the Making of a New Ivorian Language

An Interview with Mema Bamba
By Peter Vakunta

Q1- Peter Vakunta:  In your own words, how would you define Nouchi?  Is it a composite language, slang, or pidginized French?

A1-Mema Bamba: Nouchi is a vernacular language, nonstandard French of sorts, spoken predominantly by the urban youth in Côte d’Ivoire. Yes, it is also pidginized language, composed of formal French mixed with some local languages, the main ones being Dioula, Baoule, and Bete. Nouchi also borrows from foreign languages such as English, German and Spanish to expand and enrich its vocabulary. Beyond the linguistic aspect, Nouchi reflects the mixture of occidental cultures with local ones.  In a sense, Nouchi could be defined as a hybrid language.

Africa sits on time bomb of jobless varsity graduates

Africa’s unemployment problem is increasingly looking to be a time bomb as universities and tertiary institutions annually churn out thousands of graduates who cannot find job placements. Frustration is a by-word for hundreds of thousands of hopefuls who find that the job market choked or that their qualifications do not reflect industry requirements...And with no plan in sight to arrest a situation that is mirrored in dozens of other countries in Africa, graduates are desperately short of options. One of the problems, is that there has not been any effort by academia to involve industry in researching into exactly which areas that required what manpower. As a result, Africa is just producing graduates without looking at what areas that they must be sent to. The vice-chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) in Ghana, Prof Akwasi Asabre-Ameyaw says the institution graduates some 4,000 students every year, but many of them do not get any form of employment. “The growing number of unemployed graduates in itself is a danger to the nation because the devil finds jobs for the idle hands,” he adds...more

Ouattara's Coup d'Etat in Ivory Coast, French Forces Arrest President Laurent Gbagbo

Ivory Coast's constitutional President Laurent Gbagbo has been arrested, in an onslaught masterminded by France's military and aided by UN forces in Abidjan. The internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara, but not recognized by the Ivorian constitution, called for peace after his rival was arrested with the help of French forces. Ouattara, who according to U.N. won a November presidential election, can finally begin asserting his authority after the use of military power to pacify Ivorians in more than four months of stand-off that descended into all-out conflict.