Dangote's Triumphant Entry To Cameroon

Dangote Entry Economic Hiker

By Ernest Ndukong

The coming into the country of the richest man in Africa and his group, whose fortune surpasses US$ 13 billion, can, to some extent, be compared to Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

The Dangote Group plans to invest some US$ 700 million in Cameroon, starting with a FCFA 56 billion (US$ 115 million) worth cement project. The economic, political, social and reputational impact that the project(s) will have on this Central African nation and its people, cannot be gainsaid.

The ground-breaking project took three years to move from paper to the ground. This hitherto ‘invisible’ idea finally became tangible last September 19, with the signing of agreements between the parties concerned and the laying of the foundation stone of the cement factory in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital.

The cement manufacturing plant is expected to be completed by mid 2013 after which there would be 1.5 million metric tons increase in cement in the country on a yearly basis. This capacity is only about six percent less than what the lone cement producing outfit CIMENCAM produces in a year.

Dangote Group will import 70 percent of clinker - the raw material for cement and the rest would come from within.

Cement Sufficiency

According to a release from the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Technological Development, the country’s demand for the bolster product is over 2.5 million tons a year. It is also stated that this consumption grows annually by about eight percent.

By 2014, CIMENCAM’s third plant is expected to be productive, producing over 600.000 tons of cement annually. This would mean about 3.7 million tons of cement would be available and demand should be at about 3.1 million tons, everything being equal.

The market implications when supply surpasses demand are enormous and beneficial, particularly to the consumers. The price must drop for equilibrium to be established. Consumers will then buy absolutely more with their available income. The effect of this on the beauty of our villages, towns and cities are equally going to be massive.

It is important to note that the price of local cement has doubled over the past decade. The fortifying substance averagely sells at FCFA 5.000 with a lot of black marketing involved.

The Government will reduce or stop importation of cement into the country since the need for more cement to satisfy national demand would no longer be. This would mean less money spent on importation, leading to a favourable Balance of Payment (BOP), which currently has a surplus of FCFA 114 billion.

Employment

It was common practice to see many people working on a particular task in industries and factories. With mechanisation and technological advancement, fewer persons are needed for work to be completed. Nonetheless, there would still be some employment of about 200 direct workers and several hundred indirect jobs created by the cement manufacturing plant.

This would be reflected in the lives of many other Cameroonians whose relatives are part of the multi-billion project. The dependency chain would be relaxed, shortened and made more beneficial and lucrative.

The per capita income of Cameroonians would witness an upsurge, thus, leading to a higher standard of living. The effects of an improved living standard will cut across the wealth and health of Cameroonians and would definitely increase the life expectancy ratio.

Reduced unemployment would result to fewer idle minds and fewer devilish thoughts. Our society would be worth emulating and Cameroon should become an emergent economy even before 2035.

The pumping of billions into a third world economy is just one way to transform it to a developed nation. More cash means more financial transactions, more spending, increased circulation of currency, improved economic and business activities, increased income and many more positive implications. Bailouts in the Euro zone are still fresh in our memories.

Exposure

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy and Dangote is Africa’s richest man. The coming of this duo to Cameroon would expose the country to other foreign investors. It is an undeniable fact that Dangote is renowned not only in Africa but in the world and the goodwill associated with such popularity cannot be easily valuated numerically.

Society harbour’s many Thomases who would love to see before believe. It is expected that in not too long a time, these Thomases would come knocking to invest in Cameroon.

Many other foreign investors from almost all continents are already in Cameroon. Cameroon has enormous potentials and raw materials of all types and only need harnessers who would transform these natural and man-made resources to semi-finished or finished products for local consumption at affordable rates.

This mouth-watering deal is anticipated to widen the relationship between the two countries that are, independently, power houses of their respective regions; CEMAC and ECOWAS. The average Nigerian is either a politician or a business mogul or both.

Diplomatically, the two nations would have set precedence for peace and reconciliation for others to imitate. Cameroon and Nigeria were in conflict for over a dozen years over the Bakassi peninsular which now belongs to the former, after years of deliberations at The Hague. It is unusual to have such international investment projects between nations formerly considered enemies. Africa, being the mother of civilisation, it is just but normal, because, there be no permanent enemies.

Dangote’s Other Interests

The Dangote Group operates in as many as ten other countries in Africa, including some of Africa’s biggest economies, and is involved in diversified manufacturing and distribution. Their products range from sugar and salt through flour, pasta, tomato and vegetable oil to telecommunications, port management and food processing, amongst others.

Cameroon and Cameroonians are stakeholders in all of these sectors in which the Dangote Group is operating at the moment in different countries. Surely, the remaining US$585 million to complete the projected US$ 700 million will be invested in some of the other products.

The sector it would eventually invest in is not more important than the more than quadruple impact it will have, compared to the US$ 115 million cement manufacturing plant project.

CIMENCAM’s Third Plant

Cimenteries du Cameroun (CIMENCAM) said, September 23, that it had started work on a third plant to cost about FCFA 50 billion to complete. Cameroon’s Minister for Industry, Badel Ndanga Ndinga, laid the foundation stone for the new plant which is expected to be producing 600.000 to 700.000 tons of cement each, year as from 2014.

With many cement producing plants or companies, competition will prevail and a producer will only make abnormal profits if the right product is sent to the market at the right time, in its right quantity and at the right price. Monopoly will be a thing of the past.

A school of thought argues that, instead of opening a new cement manufacturing plant, the already existing CIMENCAM, whose services leave much to be desired, should have been expanded and made more productive, capable of satisfying local and foreign demand.

It should be noted that Cameroon also supplies countries in the sub-region such as Chad, Central African Republic and Gabon and imports cement for local use.

'Gold' In Poultry Sector

Poultry Sector: A Hushed ‘Gold Mine’

By Ernest Ndukong

Poultry farming in Cameroon is fast deviating from the traditional manual style to a mechanized and industrial approach. Its utilisation too, is not only tilted to a near hand-to-mouth issue, but increasingly becoming a commercial anxiety.

Poultry is a category of domesticated birds raised for the purpose of collecting their eggs and eating as meat. Broilers are mostly kept for meat and are eventually eaten as meat after about six years of egg production.

Examples of poultry birds include; chicken, duck, goose, mute swan, ostrich, guinea fowl and rhea. The purpose for either’s rearing may be for meat, feathers, eggs, ornamentation, leather and oil. Some birds are equally used for landscaping.

Almost all the various poultry techniques which include free-range, yarding, intensive chicken farming, indoor with higher welfare are practised in Cameroon, depending on the topography, climate and the financial potentials of the farmer.

The market for poultry products is an ever-increasing one and it is further delighted because the products become more valuable with the passage of time. A gate crasher at a university graduation ceremony once quipped that the success or failure of any occasion lies on the availability of chicken in all forms on the table. It is very unusual, if not impossible, for an occasion to hold without a poultry product as a main dish.

George Fisiy, a poultry farmer, disclosed that about FCFA 2,000 profit is made on every mature chicken sold. He is certain to double or triple the quantity of chicken as the market approaches its December boom period. An elated Fisiy also divulged that the about 2,500 birds occupy a space estimated at 200 square meters. On where to put the expected increment of the number of chicks, he plans to construct bans in the same hall, provide sufficient light and heat to guarantee their smooth growth. He will also fetch over FCFA 100,000 from sale of eggs a day if just 2,000 chickens lay an egg a day and he sells at FCFA 50 each.

Fisiy could not immediately establish the exact cost to grow a fowl from infantry to maturity but maintains the already stated profit on sale of a mature chick. He shares a similar view with Medoulou Medoulou, Director General of Ferme Modern du Sud in Meyomessala, who attests that a chicken lays an egg every day.

Medoulou’s estate has three production rooms with over 8,000 birds in each.

The Benefits

The financial gain is an enchantment to the farmer but the nutritional value to the consumer is arguably more than the cost borne to put a poultry product on the table. Eggs are rich in nutrients with a high protein quality, vitamins and minerals. They equally contain folate which reduces birth blemishes and cardiovascular diseases, and aids in the absorption of calcium.

Meat contains immense protein, fatty acids, iron, zinc and nutrients that necessitate healthy bodies. The iron in meat strengthens the bones and help to repair body tissues. It also boosts the immune system, thus facilitating the metabolisation of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Poultry products are highly recommended for children and adolescents.

Sector To Be Enhanced

Brazil, September 13, signed a partnership deal with the Practical Farming School of Binquela, in the Mefou and Akono Division, Centre Region to improve the poultry sector. The deal is aimed at exchanging poultry technology and training between the two nations.

The Director of the School, Michel Abega, and the Rector of Brazil’s Institut Federal de l’Education des Technologies, Professor Sebastien Edson Moura, singed the corporation accord.

Experts from Israel are also training agro-industrial engineers of the farming school on modern techniques of poultry farming. With this acquaintance, the products will reach our markets in large scale, meaning lowered prices, more money to the farmer, reduced FCFA spent on its importation resulting to a better balance of payment, more meat and eggs and more proteins in our bodies.

'Gold' In Poultry Sector

Poultry Sector: A Hushed ‘Gold Mine’

By Ernest Ndukong

Poultry farming in Cameroon is fast deviating from the traditional manual style to a mechanized and industrial approach. Its utilisation too, is not only tilted to a near hand-to-mouth issue, but increasingly becoming a commercial anxiety.

Poultry is a category of domesticated birds raised for the purpose of collecting their eggs and eating as meat. Broilers are mostly kept for meat and are eventually eaten as meat after about six years of egg production.

Examples of poultry birds include; chicken, duck, goose, mute swan, ostrich, guinea fowl and rhea. The purpose for either’s rearing may be for meat, feathers, eggs, ornamentation, leather and oil. Some birds are equally used for landscaping.

Almost all the various poultry techniques which include free-range, yarding, intensive chicken farming, indoor with higher welfare are practised in Cameroon, depending on the topography, climate and the financial potentials of the farmer.

The market for poultry products is an ever-increasing one and it is further delighted because the products become more valuable with the passage of time. A gate crasher at a university graduation ceremony once quipped that the success or failure of any occasion lies on the availability of chicken in all forms on the table. It is very unusual, if not impossible, for an occasion to hold without a poultry product as a main dish.

George Fisiy, a poultry farmer, disclosed that about FCFA 2,000 profit is made on every mature chicken sold. He is certain to double or triple the quantity of chicken as the market approaches its December boom period. An elated Fisiy also divulged that the about 2,500 birds occupy a space estimated at 200 square meters. On where to put the expected increment of the number of chicks, he plans to construct bans in the same hall, provide sufficient light and heat to guarantee their smooth growth. He will also fetch over FCFA 100,000 from sale of eggs a day if just 2,000 chickens lay an egg a day and he sells at FCFA 50 each.

Fisiy could not immediately establish the exact cost to grow a fowl from infantry to maturity but maintains the already stated profit on sale of a mature chick. He shares a similar view with Medoulou Medoulou, Director General of Ferme Modern du Sud in Meyomessala, who attests that a chicken lays an egg every day.

Medoulou’s estate has three production rooms with over 8,000 birds in each.

The Benefits

The financial gain is an enchantment to the farmer but the nutritional value to the consumer is arguably more than the cost borne to put a poultry product on the table. Eggs are rich in nutrients with a high protein quality, vitamins and minerals. They equally contain folate which reduces birth blemishes and cardiovascular diseases, and aids in the absorption of calcium.

Meat contains immense protein, fatty acids, iron, zinc and nutrients that necessitate healthy bodies. The iron in meat strengthens the bones and help to repair body tissues. It also boosts the immune system, thus facilitating the metabolisation of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Poultry products are highly recommended for children and adolescents.

Sector To Be Enhanced

Brazil, September 13, signed a partnership deal with the Practical Farming School of Binquela, in the Mefou and Akono Division, Centre Region to improve the poultry sector. The deal is aimed at exchanging poultry technology and training between the two nations.

The Director of the School, Michel Abega, and the Rector of Brazil’s Institut Federal de l’Education des Technologies, Professor Sebastien Edson Moura, singed the corporation accord.

Experts from Israel are also training agro-industrial engineers of the farming school on modern techniques of poultry farming. With this acquaintance, the products will reach our markets in large scale, meaning lowered prices, more money to the farmer, reduced FCFA spent on its importation resulting to a better balance of payment, more meat and eggs and more proteins in our bodies.

School Resumption Excites Businesses

Back To School: An Economic Stimulator

Ernest Ndukong

It’s school time again. All stakeholders, either collectively or independently’ have dilemmas, reservations and excitements.

Allocative efficiency prevails as it is an admirable time for some and very disdainful period for others. The general trend of pick holes is “rentre scolaire! Things are not moving”.

Amazingly, these pesters are even mostly shared by those who have little or nothing to do with back-to-school. That is to say they are neither parents nor guardians, and a direct or indirect attribution to school is not seen in this faction.

The sprint of activities to the build up to school resumption is not only thrilling but gives various stakeholders a once-in-a-year opportunity to optimally utilise resources for possible maximum gains.

Businesses dealing in sewing, sale of school stationery, schools and banks, are presumable beneficiaries of this rush period, while parents are the principal complainants.

Tailors’ Harvest

From a sample of tailoring shops, there is an unarguably peak in activities which could only be well-matched to activities of the December festivities period and, to a lower extent, the period culminating to the International Day of the Woman.

What is still to be scientifically established is whether the stress and pressure from clientele can be commensurate to the returns of back-to-school? A tailor friend disclosed to The Post that the influx of customers within the last fortnight has been exceptional and this has impacted positively on his daily turnover and margin.

The average of five school uniforms per person a day, each costing about FCFA 2,500 to sew, fetches the tailor at least FCFA 12,500 daily. The resulting amount after many weeks of such hit should not be overemphasised. My tailor friend equally disclosed that the expenditure input to realise a school jacket or a pair of trousers is less than 30 percent of the sewing price.

Books & Stationeries Garner

Dealers in school stationery view this period as a “cocoa season”. They assert that, it is a practical once-in-a-year time for them to up their yearly earnings. They, however, regret the influx of booksellers during this period who, eventually, disappear after the rumble and only resurface the next year.

Emmanuel Alang, a book vendor in Buea assures a gross profit of FCFA 30,000 a day, if he sells sixty 80-leaves exercise books at FCFA 250 each. He further remarks that “the good thing about the business is the non-perishable nature of the items”. So, if one has a fine storage mechanism, they could be there till the next school period.

School Administrator’s Big Hit

School principals and proprietors have invested financially for the kick-off but are very optimistic for the returns. Queues could be seen in front finance offices of schools trying to pay fees or at administrative offices seeking admission.

A friend exclaimed in a drinking spot that most principals and proprietors of educational establishments acquire new cars and vinaigrettes after this period. His partner in retaliation quipped that a goat only eats where it is tethered. It should be noted that the transfer of teachers and principals is unprecedented in Cameroon.

Transport Sector Pick

Inter-urban and intra-urban transporters feel good during this period of school resumption. After touring a few transport agencies in Fako Division of the Southwest Region, overcrowded parks and rush cut across similarly among these bus stations. A transporter confirmed that the number of departures has almost tripled. This feat is replicated in their daily revenue.

Taxis within town are on the positive side as schools resume. A team of taxi drivers revealed that business has been at a slump during the long vacation, coupled with the rains which prevented people from moving. But they are sure to overturn the tables when their car seats will always be full in the mornings and evenings.

Bank, Credit Turnovers

Financial institutions are not left out in the preparation for a new academic year. From sightsee in many banks and micro finance houses; we observed that almost every poster or publicity is about school fee loans.

Banks have special short term loans to enable parents prepare their offspring satisfactorily for school. These loans have an average interest rate of about 10 percent and have an average duration of ten months.

The duration is as sensitive as it doesn’t give room for clashes in the subsequent year. Another exciting issue about these special loans is the maturity period which is at most 48 hours from date of deposition of request. Other banks even credit the customers’ accounts at counter. Some banks give as much as FCFA 4 million depending on the client’s monthly earnings.

On this strength, one could conclude that the only stakeholder in an undesirable position is the parents and guardians. But an analytical mind would not share this view because education is investment; long term investment whose consequent fallouts is another topic of discussion in its entirety.

The pupils and students on their part sometimes feel nostalgic leaving home especially after resting and reaping all the things holidays present. While in school, they are expected to meet new friends, new teachers and a new environment.