A few months after the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union following Brexit, investors from the United Kingdom are stepping up initiatives with a view to positioning their country among Cameroon’s main economic and trade partners. This is the meaning to be given to the visit of Africa Minister James Duddridge, whose purpose is to review British investments in Cameroon.
Prominent among these investors is the British Investment Fund Actis, owner of Energy of Cameroon (ENEO), the country’s electricity utility concessionaire. The latter, through a bank syndication, recently raised 100 billion to strengthen the country’s energy supply, particularly the production and distribution components.
Said Fund which participated in the construction of Douala Grand Mall (DGM), the largest shopping center in Central Africa. This is a global investment of 80 billion, approximately 144 million dollars, the first phase of which cost 50 billion FCFA and the second phase estimated at 30 billion will lead in 2021 to the start of construction works of a Business. Park comprising a five-star hotel and an office park.
Having opted for the diversification of activities, the trade partnership between the two countries also places an emphasis on the development of cocoa and Penja pepper, where 800 million will be invested with the participation of the Commonwealth Development Fund. One of the objectives of this program is to reduce exports, which represent more than 80% of production in order to improve local processing, whose objective of transforming more than 30% by 2025 set by the government could be hardly reached.
British companies are also working in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors, like the firm New Age, whose local subsidiary New Age Petroleum is implementing a plan to invest 1250 billion in the exploration and development of gas for liquefaction. and the export of which the local subsidiary Camop Cameroon Offshore Petroleum Sarl allows to operate on the Etinde permit in the Littoral zone covers a set of three offshore blocks over 2,316 km2.
In the energy sector, Cameroon and the British group Joule Africa signed in 2012, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of the hydroelectric dam on the Menchum, in the north-west, with a production capacity of 450 Megawatts (MW) for an investment estimated at more than 500 billion, or 900 million dollars.
According to sources, trade between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Cameroon amounts to more than 145 billion CFA francs, or $ 263 million. Cameroon mainly exports raw materials and cash products, including crude oil, bananas, cocoa, timber and its by-products. In return, it imports manufactured products, including mechanical and electrical machinery and appliances, vehicles and pharmaceuticals.
