Kennedy F. Tumenta, Chairman, Director General, African Business Information Bank, mediator between Germany and Cameroon.
Since 2011 when the German delegation first came to Cameroon, how far have you gone with the setting up of African Business Information Bank (AfricanBIB) here?
For the past two years that we were received by the Head of State and supported by the German government to provide credible information on the ground in Cameroon on what people are doing at different levels, we have created a joint-venture company that is partially owned by my company in Germany and also by Cameroonian partners. This is to do feasibility studies to see what is needed in Cameroon, how we can help the private sector to get more investment, sell their products and become more competitive. We have carried out a number of projects in this direction and have so far secured letters of endorsement from different ministries who see AfricanBIB as an instrument that can help Cameroonians understand their potentials. We have worked with the Ministry of Small and Medium-size Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts to seek avenues of increasing value in what it is doing; we’ve worked with MINEPAT to see how we can create access database where people at every level can see the opportunities of Cameroonians in Cameroon and we have also signed an agreement with CONAC to ensure that good project initiatives are not stolen by others as well as to provide training on anti corruption for managers to integrate ethics in their businesses. We are equally working with Transparency International to see how we can improve the investment climate in Cameroon, we have taken many young Cameroonians to Germany who have been trained and brought back to be agents of change.
What is the target?
We are out to show that there are credible business partners in Cameroon and in that way, we have gathered information from more than 8,000 companies, treated the data and we have given them websites for free. We did what is called SWOT analysis to see their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges. We have evaluated and certified many companies and we have also trained young people to open their companies. We are a bank that helps people to create their own ideas, to develop these ideas and we look for the right finances for them. We have brought about 30 German companies into Cameroon who are investing in other companies. We are also negotiating ways of making sure that Cameroonian products are well packaged in a way needed by German and other foreign companies.
How would you assess the business environment in Cameroon?
The business climate in Cameroon has improved over the years with the introduction of anti corruption systems. Cameroonians are aware of best practices and government has put in place a lot of incentives to attract investments. The most important issue that people must understand is that the Cameroonian government concluded a document wherein the advantages that are given to foreign investors are also given to Cameroonians. This is a unique example in Africa. The greatest challenge is how to communicate this improvement in the business climate, translate this business climate into opportunities for ordinary Cameroonians.
What then needs to be done to continually better the business climate so as to have investors and other Cameroonians in the Diaspora like you invest back home?
The various ministries have to take the worry of the Head of State very serious. They need to give us and other Cameroonians here a red carpet reception and the necessary support. The support is there but the different departments within the ministries need to be efficient. One thing that many Cameroonians are afraid of is that when they bring their ideas and give to the ministries, some of the people who work in the ministries steal them. My company is prepared to work with the different ministries to develop monitoring and ethical mechanisms to help curb such behaviours. Secondly, the Head of State has to put in place a Special Purpose Fund for the Diaspora that will help Cameroonians who have competences but with little finances to be able to come back and invest. This is something that other countries are doing. I have worked with the Tanzanian government to put this in place. We have the competence to do it, it is easy and it would not cost the taxpayer a lot. We need to put credible, verified and verifiable, traceable information about our country in which people can act and there are companies out there waiting for that. We need to prepare our companies here to be competitive with others in other countries and we are mapping out the sectors to know who has what competence.
