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1
- Political Status
The Republic of
Cameroon has a multiparty presidential
regime.
The National Assembly, the
legislative power, is made up of 180 deputies from
4 parties
The country is divided administratively into 10
provinces and 52 departments.
The president is elected for
a five year term of office by general election.
The present President is Mr
Paul Biya (in power since 30th November 1982).
He was elected the first time on 14th January 1984,
re-elected 24th April 1989 and 11th October 1992.
(Elections are imminent).
The Prime Minister is Mr
Peter Mafany Musonge (since 19th September
1996).
The 108 members of the
National Assembly are also elected for 5 years by
universal suffrage.
A Senate was created when the constitution was
revised on 10th January 1996.
The main opposition party in
the National Assembly is the UNDP (National Union
for Democracy and Progress).
Mr Maigari Bello Bouba leads this parliamentary
group of 68 deputies.
Other political parties are the SDF (Social
Democratic Front) led by John Fru Ndi, the UPC
(People's Union of Cameroon) and the PDC (Party of
Democrats of Cameroon).
External affairs : the
conflict which opposes Cameroon and Nigeria
concerning the sovereignty of the Bakassi peninsula
is still not resolved, in spite of the first
conclusions of the Court of International Justice
of the Hague in favour of Cameroon and the desire
of the Nigerian president to calm down the
tension.
The country's national anthem
is 'O Cameroun de nos ancêtres' (O Cameroon
of our ancestors).
Historical
outline :
The independence of the Republic of Cameroon was
proclaimed on 1st January 1960, at the same time as
the British Cameroons separated, the northern
region being attached to Nigeria and the southern
to Cameroon.
4th November 1982 : President Ahidjo, who was in
power since independence, resigned.
He was replaced by his minister Paul Biya.
28th February 1984 President Biya is re-elected and
President Ahidjo is condemned to death by the
Military Tribune of Yaounde.
5th December 1990 : a law instituting mult-partism
is voted in Parliament
9th April 1992 : Mr Simon Achidi Achu is named
Prime Minister, replacing Mr Hayatou
23rd October 1992 : re-election of President
Biya
May 1993 : national debate concerning the revision
of the constitution
11th January 1994 : the Franc CFA is devalued by
50%
The country's National
Defence force is 8,000 men. Cameroon is a member of
the OUA, the CEEAC : the economic community of the
African states, the UDEAC : the customs union of
Central Africa, as well as the organization of the
river states of Lake Chad.
2 -
Geographical situation
Cameroon has a total surface
area of 475,442 square kilometers and a population
density of 31 inhabitants per sq.km.. It has a
coast line 402 kms long on the Gulf of
Guinea.
It is surrounded by six
countries : Nigeria, Chad, the Central African
Republic, the Congo, Gabon and Equatorial
Guinea.
Geographical relief : a
coastal plain in the south, low plateaus and
volcanoes in the south west and the west, the
plateau of Adamaoua in the centre, the plains of
Benoue et Logone in the north and the Mandara
mountains in the north west.
The culminating point is Mt Cameroon (4070
m).
The vegetation is thicker in
the south, more sparse in the west. In the north
there are steppe lands.
3 -
Economy & statistics
Under pressure from the World Bank, Cameroon
started up a programme of reforms (named as the
most corrupt State in the world by NGO Transparency
International in 1998 and 1999) and
privatizations.
The severe efforts made over the last three years
have paid off.
Yaoune has finally managed, after 4 repeated
failures, to carry out the structural change
programme signed in August 1997 with the Bretton
Woods institutions.
After a period of relative
decline, the Cameroonian economy could get back on
its feet again after the devaluation of the Franc
CFA, which boosted exports and improved the
liquidity in financial circuits. Exports went up
30% in volume.
The adopted strategy could be resumed thus :
1-reduction in spending
2-growth of revenues
3-improvement of relations with bilateral and
multilateral partners.
The different efforts to increase the State
revenues was led by a more systematic tax
collection, the abolishing of preferential regimes
of various exonerations and the rise of the tax on
turnover.
The agricultural economy
employs three quarters of the population and
represents 40% of the GDP, supplying nearly 60% of
the export value.
Black Africa is the zone with
the highest debt of all the third world, with a
total debt of 223 billion dollars. The external
debt of Cameroon totals nearly 2,000 billion
FCFA.
The Cameroon government has
made the lightening of the debt one of their
priorities : reducing the volume of civil servants,
privatizing public companies et restructuring the
financial sector.
In October 2000 Cameroon became the eleventh
country to profit from the multilateral
intitiative, called PPTE (Poor country with huge
debts).
A debt of 15.2 billion francs was wiped out, equal
to 27% of the total money owed, bringing the part
of the public revenue spent on the debt charge from
23% to 12%.
Paul Biya considers this as a "historical
success".
A new loan of 177 million
francs was allocated by the IMF to reduce poverty,
more than half the population survives with less
than a dollar a day.
The country has several
natural assets, a series of local well developed
companies and lives from its exports. Several
industrial units continue to be created, in
particular in wood processing.
Certain growth forecasts for 2001 are over the
6%-7% level, because of the acceleration in
investment.
GNP 1998 : 96th/226
GNP per capita 1998 : 172th/226
Purchasing power parity : 1 395 dollars (
229% du GNP per capita)
Economy
(in billions of
dollars, except GNP per capita in
dollars)
|
|
1996
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1997
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1998
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1999
|
France98
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|
Gross
National Product
|
8.52
|
8.51
|
8.23
|
8.22
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1429.58
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GNP per
capita
|
620
|
620
|
610
|
560
|
24210
|
|
growth of
volume of GDP
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5.0%
|
5.1%
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5.0%
|
3.9%
|
3.2%
|
|
aid (+ or
-)
|
0.481
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0.431
|
0.301
|
-
|
-8.402
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external
debt
|
7.410
|
7.827
|
7.723
|
-
|
-
|
|
rate of
inflation
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4.7%
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1.1%
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0.1%
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0.5%
|
0.7%
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rate of
interest
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5.38%
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5.04%
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5.00%
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5.00%
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3.21%
|
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tourist
revenues
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0.038
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0.039
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0.040
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-
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29.931
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|
foreign
investment
|
0.035
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0.045
|
0.050
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-
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27.998
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rate of
the US dollar
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511.55
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583.67
|
589.95
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615.70
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5.90
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(Source:
Atlas éco 2001)
External
trade
(in billions of
dollars)
|
|
1995
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1996
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1997
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1998
|
France98
|
|
exports
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2.045
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2.048
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2.306
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2.306
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387.123
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imports
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-1.646
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-1.867
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-2.041
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-2.176
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-342.244
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balance of
payments
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0.09
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-0.375
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-0.258
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-0.235
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40.161
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(Source:
Atlas éco 2002)
Division
of GDP by activity sector
Agriculture
: 42.4%
Industry : 10.7%
Mining : 10.9%
Services : 36.0%
4 -
Agriculture
Blessed with a favourable climate Cameroon is one
of the best provided for countries of the
subsaharian region.
There are two types of
agriculatural exploitation carried out : peasant
farming using family as labour and capitalistic
farms belonging to private companies.
The country largely survives
due to its production of sorghum. Commercial crops
are cocoa, coffee, bananas and
pineapple.
In the north, from Lake Chad
to the Benoue basin, millet is the basic crop,
followed by maize, peanuts, gombo, beans and
rice.
In the Adamaoua region,
manyoc, sorghum, maize and bananas are grown.
In the highlands in the west are grown maize, root
vegetables and bananas.
In the capitalist farms are grown oleaginous
plants, like oil palms, peanuts, tropical fruit
like bananas and pineapple, cotton, hevea, tobacco,
sugar cane and rice.
Stockbreeding is done on the Adamaoua
savannahs.
The extreme north is modernizing.
Sheep and goods are raised mostly in the extreem
north of the country, while pigs are raised along
the coast and in the west.
Agricultural stockbreeding totals over 30 million
chicken raised in specialized batteries.
80,000 tons of fish were
fished in 1993.
Fishing is concentrated in Douala with a maritime
industry using trawlers and shrimp
boats.
Timber production is very
good. 14.6 million cubic metets can be cut every
year.
Unfortunately the lumber industry has strong
competition from Asian countries.
Agriculture
(livestock
in millions of head, timber in millions of m3,
other products in millions of
tons)
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1996
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1997
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1998
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1999
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rating
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Rating of
agricultural production
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120.0
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117.2
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119.2
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122.2
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-
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wood
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15.280
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15.122
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15.172
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-
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-
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cocoa
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0.126
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0.127
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0.149
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0.150
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5
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coffee
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0.053
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0.053
|
0.069
|
0.062
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22
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sugar
cane
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1.350
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1.350
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1.350
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1.350
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-
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cotton
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0.079
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0.075
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0.075
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-
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23
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maize
|
0.750
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0.600
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0.550
|
0.600
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-
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millet
|
0.071
|
0.071
|
0.071
|
0.071
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22
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potatoes
|
0.035
|
0.038
|
0.042
|
0.049
|
-
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rice
|
0.054
|
0.065
|
0.065
|
0.065
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-
|
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tea
|
0.004
|
0.004
|
0.004
|
0.004
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25
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cattle
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5.550
|
5.700
|
5.900
|
5.900
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-
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sheep
|
3.820
|
3.840
|
3.860
|
3.880
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-
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pigs
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1.415
|
1.420
|
1.425
|
1.430
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-
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fishing
|
0.087
|
0.089
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-
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-
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-
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(Source:
Atlas éco 2002)
5
- Industries & mining
Cameroon is a country
rich in minerals and industry.
Its main mining production is based on petrol, and
since 1993 also on natural gas.
In 1993 the mines employed 2% of the working
population.
The exploitation represented 12% of the
GNP.
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