The Entrepreneur - Cameroon's Premier Economic & Business Journal

Cameroon OIC Graduates 501 Trainees

By Stephen Njumbe Sako

The twenty-first batch of students of the Cameroon Opportunities Industrialization Centre - COIC - Buea have been called upon to be good ambassadors of the institution. The call was made on Thursday, December 8, 2011 by the Secretary General to the Governor of the Southwest Region Mr Handeson Ketong during the graduation ceremony. "Be true ambassadors of your institution and create jobs rather than remain perpetual job seekers,"he stressed. According to Mr Ketong, the COIC is very instrumental in the country as its objectives are geared towards the policy of Greater Realisation of the Head of State, President Paul Biya, which is that of creating employment and reducing poverty in a programme of actions to make Cameroon an emerging economy by 2035.

The Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial “Suicide”

To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to be extremely passionate about your dream. Passion is what makes you persevere long enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Doing the right things may ensure that you fare well. What if we slip and are unable to recognize the Judases? Or we just take things for granted and drift away from reality? So, for a change lets look at the factors that will kill our dream. Hopefully if we learn to avoid these pitfalls like the pestilence then we will be on the way to an exciting business life...Ten Commandments

Capitalism vs. the Climate

The US political right has campaigned fervently and, according to polls, successfully, to frame climate change as an anti-capitalist conspiracy that will lead to economic self-destruction. The right-wing's nefarious success, notes author Naomi Klein, is ultimately not based on the exploitation of feigned scientific disagreement, but on the image of impending economic doom. The populist strategy's success contains the unintended, yet valuable, lesson that climate change is not really about nature in the first place. It is rather about "the central fiction on which our economic model is based: that nature is limitless." According to Klein, "the climate movement" should now take advantage of the globally vehement questioning of capitalism. We must develop a new "civilizational paradigm" that looks beyond "green products" and market-led solutions...More

''Cameroon's Mining code is generous and friendly to foreign investors'', David Makongo

During His inaugural speech November 3rd, 2011 as, president-elect of the Republic of Cameroon on the occasion of the swearing-in ceremony before the National Assembly, President Biya placed his new seven years mandate under the banner of “major accomplishments.” The Entrepreneur NewsOnline [TENO] caught up with Dr David Makongo  President of Makongo & African Partners LLC who are Experts in Africa Mining and Oil and Gas Issues, to find out more on Cameroon's economic development strategies, especially the Mining Sector which the government expects to reap revenue to fund planned programmes:

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline [TENO]: Does this mean President Paul Biya will have to change the mining law and policy of Cameroon so in order to realize his “major accomplishments”?

David Makongo: In the1980s and 1990s most African nations reviewed their mining codes to benefit from globalization and privatization. Though Cameroon also hinted a possible review of the 1964 post-colonial mining code, this never happened till 2001. So, I will say Cameroon did not take immediate advantage of the wind of change that was blowing in Africa mining regimes so it stayed a step behind other African nations with equal mining potential.

Farmers Mobilise to Find Solutions Against Land Grabbing

More than 250 small farmers and representatives of farmers' organizations from over 30 countries participated in the first International Farmers' Conference to Stop Land Grabbing from November 17 to 20 in Southern Mali. Participants at the conference shared testimonials of local struggles and discussed solutions to the global land rush. The conference proposed replicating a program in Senegal that would monitor land grabbing cases and then alert journalists, NGOs and policy makers...More

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for December, 2011

The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again

By Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols

Hardcover: 352 pages; Publisher: Nation Books; 1 edition (January 5, 2010); Language: English; ISBN-10: 1568586051

"...This is another in a long line of enlightening and valuable studies by the authors pertaining the role of big business in the demise of American news media in the name of profit. It is required reading for anyone concerned with the loss of the democratic values that once served as the foundation of journalistic enterprise..."

"....Not only is this book not radical, it is intelligently written, well-researched, timely, and important. A functional democracy requires a healthy press, and clearly the US press is suffering under the influence of private capital. (Fox News is the poster child of our moribund press, but it is not alone). Public investment in journalism is a refreshing idea and one that should be take seriously...."

"....American newspapers are dying at an alarming rate, killed off by a failing corporate model that puts profits before journalism and a reliance on advertisers who are flocking to the Internet. Respected journalists McChesney and Nichols offer historical perspective—how we got into this sorry state—and analysis from journalists, economists, and advocates on how we might be able to get out of it. They cite statistics, chronicling efforts to move newsgathering to the Internet and the success of many bloggers who rely on aggregated news from old media. Their bottom line: without some kind of government support, journalism as we know it will not survive...The authors argue passionately for radical solutions but also offer an exhilarating vision for the direction of American journalism..." - Vanessa Bush

Business Schools, Opportunities Rise in Africa

After spending more than a decade working in product development for Oceanic Bank in Nigeria, Henry Obike wanted to broaden his business skills and get an executive MBA in hopes of someday starting his own company. With few high-quality local options, Obike, 37, decided to apply to Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass, more than 5,000 miles from his job, wife, and four children.Then he heard about a new Executive MBA program set up in Accra, Ghana, by the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS Full-Time MBA Profile), known as CEIBS, a top-ranked international business school whose main campus is in the Pudong district of Shanghai. The CEIBS Ghana program was an instant sell for Obike, who joined its first class in the spring of 2009. Every two months, he and nine Nigerian executives fly to Ghana for eight days of classes taught by CEIBS professors in a building on Independence Avenue, amid Accra's thriving central business district. Says Obike: "It's the Harvard of Africa. Me and other Nigerians are really trying hard to take advantage of this opportunity because there's no other school like it .....More

IMF Executive Board Consultation with Cameroon

....The economy continues to recover from the impact of the global crisis, and inflation remains low. Real GDP growth in 2010 is estimated at 3.2 percent, up from 2 percent in 2009, despite a drop of about 12 percent in oil output. Average annual inflation was contained at 1.3 percent, compared with 3 percent in 2009. Food price inflation was 1.2 percent in 2010, and the recent sharp increase in international commodity prices has so far had a limited impact. The external accounts have benefited from the global economic recovery. The current account deficit (including grants) declined to 2.8 percent of GDP, from 3.8 percent in 2009.

...The country remains dependent on commodities for export earnings and fiscal revenues and is thus vulnerable to external shocks, as seen during the recent global financial crisis...

...The fiscal accounts show a limited overall budget deficit in 2010. Total revenue was close to the supplementary budget target, because the oil revenue windfall generated by the recent oil price surge compensated for a shortfall in nonoil revenue. Nonetheless nonoil government revenue, as a ratio to nonoil GDP, remains among the lowest of sub-Saharan African oil exporters. Some efforts were made in 2010 in terms of arrears clearance to deal with the legacy of PFM problems incurred in 2009...More

Developing Countries to Receive Over $350 Billion in Remittances in 2011, Says World Bank Report

Remittance flows to developing countries are expected to total $351 billion this year, and worldwide remittances, including those to high-income countries, will reach $406 billion for the current calendar year, according to a newly updated World Bank brief on global migration and remittances. The top recipients of officially recorded remittances, estimated for 2011, are India ($58 billion), China ($57 billion), Mexico ($24 billion), and the Philippines ($23 billion). Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, Egypt and Lebanon. While the economic slowdown is dampening employment prospects for migrant workers in some high-income countries, global remittances, nevertheless, are expected to stay on a growth path and, by 2014, are forecast to reach $515 billion. Of that, $441 billion will flow to developing countries, according to the latest issue of the Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released today at the fifth meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Geneva...More

Scarcity and degradation of land and water: growing threat to food security

New FAO report profiles the state of the natural resource base upon which world food production depends

Widespread degradation and deepening scarcity of land and water resources have placed a number of key food production systems around the globe at risk, posing a profound challenge to the task of feeding a world population expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, according to a new FAO report. The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW) notes that while the last 50 years witnessed a notable increase in food production, “in too many places, achievements have been associated with management practices that have degraded the land and water systems upon which food production depends.” Today a number of those systems “face the risk of progressive breakdown of their productive capacity under a combination of excessive demographic pressure and unsustainable agriculture use and practices,” the report says.