(Business in Cameroon) - Kone Dossongui, Ivorian head of Atlantique (Atlantic Télécom, Atlantic Financial Group) already present in Cameroon through the bank of the same name, was received on July 29, 2015 in Yaoundé, by the Cameroonian Minister of Economy. The Ivorian businessman came to present to Minister Nganou Djoumessi the progress of his plan to create a cocoa consortium in Cameroon.

It is an agro-industrial project in three parts, including the creation of cocoa farms in the country, the construction of a cocoa processing plant and the setting up of a producers’ association.

The project has been so well received by the Cameroonian authorities that it falls in with plans to revive the cocoa-coffee sector, adopted by the Cameroonian government in September 2014. Implemented at the start of 2015, the plan aims to produce 600,000 tonnes nationally by 2020 against the current annual average of 200,000 tonnes.

In addition, Cameroon wants to shed its reputation for being a top exporter of unprocessed cocoa, by encouraging investment in the area of transformation. On average, it is forecast to locally process 70% of national production against only 25% currently.