New Investment to Lift Cotton Transformation Ceiling

New Investment to Lift Cotton Transformation Ceiling

Monday, December 05, 2011

By Divine Ntaryike Jr

The Cameroon government is touting fresh investments in the cotton transformation sector as a likely output and value-added export stimulus in the coming years.  The ongoing government chest-pounding follows the fertile conclusion of a US$ 2million loan deal last  November in the industrial hub, Douala.

The Development Bank of Central African States [BDEAC] and the Societe Generale de Banques de Cameroun, a French commercial bank subsidiary agreed to respectively disburse US$ 1,4 million [700 million FCFA] and US$ 600,000 [300 million FCFA] in loans to the private venture hatched by SITRACO [Cotton Industrial Transformation Company]. 

"At the moment, local processing of cotton is about 5 percent, with the remaining 95 percent exported. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to raise the level of local processing to at least 40 percent and also reduce raw exports," Martin Yankwa, an inspector in the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Technological Development explained. 

Cameroon’s feeble textiles industry has been dominated by CICAM [Cotton Industry of Cameroon] since 1965.  Skimpy internal demand, weak adoption of modern technology, unfair completion and dumping have discouraged investment for local transformation.  In fact, cotton production has slumped by about 50 percent over the last five years from 306,000 tons during the 2004/05 season to 161,000 tons in 2010.

The loan pact heralds hope for the over 200,000 growers scattered across the main production hubs in the country’s northern parts.  They are bound by regulations to exclusively sell their harvests to the Cotton Development Corporation, SODECOTON, which provides them inputs among others in return.  But the 200 FCFA per kilogram offered them by the state-run corporation has fuelled smuggling of harvests to neighboring Nigeria where rates are far higher.

SODECOTON’s agricultural production director, Ibrahim Ngamie, says during the 2010/11 harvest season, SODECOTON incurred losses of over 14 billion FCFA [about US$ 31 million] as a result of trafficking of some 25,000 tons to Nigeria.  With this year’s harvests beginning, Nigerian traffickers are said to be invading the growing areas once again.  The Governor of the North Region, Gambo Haman has warned that smugglers will be ranked in the same league as highway robbers and dealt with as such.

Meantime, SITRACO intends to flag off operations at its Douala factory in the course of 2012.  General Manager, Robert Kemajou says the total cost of the project stands around 5 billion CFA francs ($10.4 million) at least.  The company will reel off rolls of cotton ready for consumption by the textiles industry, as well as engage in the fabrication of medical supplies. 

Apart from its use in the fabrics industry, western medicine employs cotton for dressings, bandages, swabs and wool.  Scientists say cotton’s role is fast-evolving.  Its roots and seeds contain compounds that bear the potential for treating cancer and HIV.  Elsewhere, cotton seeds have been proven to be high protein sources.  Cotton is also being developed for use in cleaning up oil spills, for electrical conductivity purposes, erosion control and packing material among others.

Addressing a Central Africa Cotton Business Forum in the capital Yaoundé last February, US Ambassador to Cameroon, Robert P Jackson preached the benefits of Cameroon introducing biotechnology in cotton growing.  According to him, embracing biotech will increase production and enable farmers reap advantage from record-high world market prices.

 India introduced the technology in 2002 and saw production double in 2008, he added.  A formal government reaction to the recommendation is still awaited. Cameroon’s cotton output has not only stagnated, but slumped considerably over the years.  

Cameroon Government Kick-starts Boko Haram

Cameroon Government Kick-starts Boko Haram Clampdown
Monday, December 05, 2011

By Divine Ntaryike Jr

In recent months, Muslim clerics have recurrently presumed the snowballing presence across Cameroon of members of Nigeria’s militant Islamic sect, the Boko Haram.  In August for example, Sheikh Ibrahim Mbombo Mubarak, a Douala-based Imam warned that the Central African nation no longer served only as a sanctuary for fugitives of the extremist movement, but was fast becoming a station for enrolling converts.

Ostensibly, the chimes of those alarm bells are finally netting government attention. Authorities in the country’s largest metropolis, Douala, have kicked off consultations with Muslim clerics and community leaders aimed at elaborating a blueprint to fend off the inbound fundamentalists.  The kick-starter session, to be replicated nationwide held in late November under the auspices of Bernard Okalia Bilai, senior divisional officer for the Wouri Division headquartered in Douala.

“We have been informed of attempts of  Boko Haram infiltration.  Their doctrine is anti-social as it condemns western education.  It’s a doctrine that persuades young graduates to rip their degrees because it’s satanic.  It’s a doctrine that condemns what today constitutes the values of our society and top authorities of the country don’t accept that such hateful dogma is established in our communities, and thus the necessity of this meeting.  We must be vigilant,” the administrator expounded, adding that ongoing high-level deliberations are contemplating how to best stave off the infiltration. 

Boko Haram is a term coined from Hausa to symbolize radical opposition to Western education.  It is believed the movement was hatched between 2000 and 2003 in Nigeria, as the Committee of Islamic Youth.  Its initial goal was to counter Christianity.  Before long, it metamorphosed into Boko Haram. The radical religious group has been accused of, or claimed responsibility for a spate of savage assaults in recent years in Nigeria.  Essentially, militants target and kill Christians, police, politicians, local government officials as well as blow up government institutions.

In July 2009, sectarian clashes pitting Boko Haram and Christians in Nigeria’s Borno State, which shares borders with Cameroon, left over 800 people dead within days.  The Nigerian police and army launched an offensive that culminated in the killing of the group leader, Mohammed Yusuf, alongside several high profile aides.

The crackdown triggered the escape of some of the group members to neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.  Sheik Mubarak says after initially seeking refuge in Cameroon’s predominantly Muslim northern regions, which share porous borders with Nigeria, the runaway militants have steadily infiltrated Muslim communities elsewhere across the country and are hosted unwittingly or knowingly by some hard-line Cameroonian Muslim leaders who even allow them preach extremist ideologies in their mosques.

“Boko Haram militants are experts in camouflage.  Don’t wait to see them with or without long beards.  They use all possible means to circulate.  The most important thing is to be able to decode their messages, which they are spreading with CDs.  And that’s going on in mosques, within Muslim communities and among religious leaders, some of whom are providing protection for them because they pass for Muslim brothers and so cannot be denounced,” Mubarak asserted. 

Mubarak has also alleged that some prominent members of the group, including Mohammad Nour and Mohamed Kahirou are Cameroonians who actually grew up in Douala and have since returned following the ongoing crackdown against the sect in Nigeria.  He says they are the main purveyors of the Boko Haram philosophy in Cameroon. 

Meantime, the Conference of Imams of Cameroon has equally expressed concern over the potential danger posed by the swelling presence of Boko Haram militants in the country.   Legislation on religious freedom is loose and worship houses are freely sprouting at alarming rates.  The Conference has warned that with Cameroonian Muslims witnessing doctrinal disputes and an increasingly moribund economy, recruiting Boko Haram followers across the country, with over half of its 20 million inhabitants toiling below the poverty line will be quite easy, as obtained in Nigeria when the group was first hatched.

Several Nigerian newspaper reports have hinted that police interrogations of captured Boko Haram members have revealed that the group procures weapons [including rocket launchers and AK47s] from unnamed sources in Cameroon and Chad.  Some of the reports also indicate the group has been considering the possibility of using Niger, Chad or Cameroon as a logistics base from where operations, targeting its critics and government institutions in Nigeria, can be launched.

In June this year, the Shehu of Borno State accused aliens from Chad and Cameroon of masterminding Boko Haram attacks that left several people dead.  A month later, 36 nationals including Chadians and Cameroonians were identified among those killed in a gun battle between police and suspected Boko Haram activists. Earlier this month, 43 Cameroonians, suspected of belonging to the group were expelled to Cameroon