Business visit in Cameroon
Doing business in Cameroon, Cameroon business opportunity, or simply want to learn more about us, we thank you for dropping by and hope you find what you’re looking for. If not, don’t hesitate to get in touch directly.
Cameroon’s new democracy is flourishing. Our economy is dynamic and continues to grow. Our determination to build a better tomorrow which helped us breaks the shackles of the past burns as brightly and irrepressibly as ever. These are truly exciting times in Cameroon and the African Continent. We are at the dawn of what we confidently predict will be Africa’s century
Overview
Why Invest in Cameroon
The Cameroon of today is one of the most sophisticated and promising emerging markets globally. The unique combination of a highly developed first-world economic infrastructure and a huge emergent market economy has given rise to a strong entrepreneurial and dynamic investment environment.
Cameroon is the economic powerhouse of the African continent,the Cameroonian Economic outlook has been on an upward trend since 2007. Despite the decline in the Oil production industry and the recent financial crisis, the country has continued to show GDP growth rates of 3.6% and 4.8% in 2007 and 2008 respectively and a forecast of 4.6% in 2009. The country benefits from increasing trade opportunities between Africa and Asia and an economy rich in Primary Commodities with the greater part of its trade transactions backed by cash securities and an absence of complex derivative deal structures.
Accessibility to basic utilities and services like water, electricity, sanitation, education is improving as cooperates like CAMWATER Cameroon Water and AES Sonel Société National d’Électricité take measures to improve capacity and efficiency.
Some of the most dynamic sectors of the Cameroonian economy are Forestry, Telecommunications, Construction and Agriculture. Trading activities in Africa as a whole have witnessed surging volumes with import volumes rising more than 250% and export volumes growing in excess of 260% since 2000. Agriculture and Forestry account for 20.4% GDP in Cameroon but the sector still sees a growth rate of import volumes higher than exports until recently. The charts below are representative of Cameroon GDP growth rates per capita.
Agriculture and Forestry
Log production was up 13%, 5% and 7% in 2006, 2007and 2008 respectively. It is forecast to improve with the opening of 14 new forestry management units in 2007 to priorities on management, product upgrading and local processing of timber. The food production industry is hampered mainly by a lack of financing and weather conditions limiting growth to about 4% last year. The sector is expected to benefit from better cross border infrastructure to ease trading with neighboring countries particularly in rubber, cocoa, coffee and bananas.
Opportunities in this sector are in production/conversion of primary commodities and trade financing.
Commerce and Trade
Cameroon imports the greater part of the commodities it markets whereas the country is rich in natural resources and can support vast variety of agricultural products. There is a real shortage in conversion processes from primary goods to secondary goods and the country exports most of its cocoa, coffee and rubber produce and imports their related finished products. Trade corridors between the continent and Asia are very lucrative with the country benefitting from accessibility as it situated right on the West coast of Africa and better road infrastructure within the country and cross boarder to neighboring countries.
The customer base for the telecommunications industry is growing fast with a greater than 30% customer base in 2007. Laying of fiber-optic cables is still underway.
Opportunities in this sector are in trade financing and production/conversion processes of the operating cycle.
Transportation (land, sea, air)
The country is in the process of revamping roads into and in the economic capital Douala; these work have already begun to improve circulation and accessibility of goods in and out of the commercial area. The city is connected to all major towns in Cameroon, has rail links to Kumba, Nkongsamba, Yaoundé and Ngaoundere and is served by an international airport. Cameroon has three major ports for exports and imports with storage facilities, 58,000m sq or warehousing and 380,000m sq of open storage and 8,000m sq cold storage on site. Plans to build a fourth deep sea port in Kribi are underway. The political capital Yaoundé and the North region of Garoua are also served by international Airports.
Opportunities in this sector are in transportation, tracking, storage and exportation to other central African countries.
Industrial manufacturing
One of the major industrial centers of Central Africa, Cameroon houses breweries, textile factories, palm oil, soap and food-processing plants. It also produces building materials, metalwork, plastics, glass, paper, bicycles and timber products. The country also is home to a refinery SONARA which refines imported crude oil and supplies by-products like Jet fuel, Petrol, Gasoil, Gas etc. Plans are underway for implementation in 2010 to increase capacity and efficiency. SNH Société nationale des hydrocarbures, the National Oil and Gas Company and its partner Perenco have authorization to extract Gas from the Sanaga Sud Field. Geovic Cameroon is initiating the exploration and mining of Cobalt ,Rough Diamonds, gold dust and Nickel deposits.
Opportunities in this area are in distribution of different manufactured products, financing and marketing
Banking & Insurance & Finance
The banking industry in Cameroon is governed by both internal and external regulations. Cameroon along with five other countries of the Central African Sub- Region has one central bank, the Bank of central African States known by the French acronym ‘BEAC’ and headquartered in Cameroon.
With the increasing trend in trade volumes in the country, there is an opportunity for funding and financing to support these trade volumes. Export trade will benefit from local banks with an international network to support cross border trading regulations.
Tourism & Travel
The tourism industry in Cameroon is benefitting due to attention from the WWF and its work with the wildlife community in the country mainly the Limbe Botanic Garden and Zoo in the southwest Region. It is a growing albeit minor industry and opportunities in this area are numerous. Cameroon is rich in culture with more than 250 different tribes with distinct dialects split predominantly into two, French and English speaking Cameroon. This heritage makes for a rich culture and tourism destination, air travel within the country is available with Elysian airways.
The north of the country is the primary tourist draw with several wildlife reserves, including the largest and best-run in Central Africa, Waza National Park. The park offers both Animal viewing and big game hunting. Maroua houses a large crafts market and museums while the hotel business in Cameroon is reportedly on the increase with more overnight stays. The Adamawa, East and South Regions offer a new front for expansion as transport conditions improve.
Construction Industry
Construction is another growing industry in the country, with the increase in need for transportation and commercial infrastructure. The Chinese are big stakeholders where road infrastructure is concerned and more opportunities continue to arise especially in the more commercial cities of the country. On the residential front, housing is becoming more commercialized with more people buying completed or semi completed building as opposed to building from scratch.
Projects underway include an agreement with China to supply drinking water to Douala, a gas fired power plant is underway in Kribi, rehabilitation of the hydroelectric power stations of Edea and Song Loulou and a new Nachtigal hydroelectric and reservoir dam of Lom Pangar all AES Sonel initiatives.
Opportunities in this area are in contracting and construction projects for road infrastructure and industrialization. There is also a need for financing based on project kind and quality.