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Cameroon Welcome
Living and Working in CAMEROON
A guide with information, advice and useful addresses
Summary

Cameroon Welcome

Political status
Geographical situation
Economy
Agriculture
Industry
Other sectors
Population
Language
Religion
Weights, measure & voltage
Money
Main towns
Climate
Insects
Working
Formalities
Health
Transports
Information
Time differences
Telephone
Airports
ar rental
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Your suitcase
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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
1997
1998
1999
France98

Gross National Product

8.52
8.51
8.23
8.22
1429.58

GNP per capita

620
620
610
560
24210

growth of volume of GDP

5.0%
5.1%
5.0%
3.9%
3.2%

aid (+ or -)

0.481
0.431
0.301
-
-8.402

external debt

7.410
7.827
7.723
-
-

rate of inflation

4.7%
1.1%
0.1%
0.5%
0.7%

rate of interest

5.38%
5.04%
5.00%
5.00%
3.21%

tourist revenues

0.038
0.039
0.040
-
29.931

foreign investment

0.035
0.045
0.050
-
27.998

rate of the US dollar

511.55
583.67
589.95
615.70
5.90
(Source: Atlas éco 2001)


External trade
(in billions of dollars)

1995
1996
1997
1998
France98

exports

2.045
2.048
2.306
2.306
387.123

imports

-1.646
-1.867
-2.041
-2.176
-342.244

balance of payments

0.09
-0.375
-0.258
-0.235
40.161
(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)

1996
1997
1998
1999
rating

Rating of agricultural production

120.0
117.2
119.2
122.2
-

wood

15.280
15.122
15.172
-
-

cocoa

0.126
0.127
0.149
0.150
5

coffee

0.053
0.053
0.069
0.062
22

sugar cane

1.350
1.350
1.350
1.350
-

cotton

0.079
0.075
0.075
-
23

maize

0.750
0.600
0.550
0.600
-

millet

0.071
0.071
0.071
0.071
22

potatoes

0.035
0.038
0.042
0.049
-

rice

0.054
0.065
0.065
0.065
-

tea

0.004
0.004
0.004
0.004
25

cattle

5.550
5.700
5.900
5.900
-

sheep

3.820
3.840
3.860
3.880
-

pigs

1.415
1.420
1.425
1.430
-

fishing

0.087
0.089
-
-
-
(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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