(Business in Cameroon) - Jean Marc Sambha’a, a retired agronomist has been appointed “provisional administrator” to manage the Federation of Cameroon tobacco producers and growers of other agricultural food crops (FPTC), east of the country by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Essimi Menye.

Earlier, on 4 May 2013 Essimi Menye ordered the Senior Divisional Officer of Lom and Djérem to seal the doors of the cooperative.

According to State TV, CRTV, the ignorance of the cooperative leaders and the persistent problems that cripple the growth of this sector in the eastern region forced Essimi Menye to take the decision.

“I suspended the managers of FPTC, simply because the Vice Board Chair and General Manager do not seem to know the regulations governing such cooperatives. And not to let disorder set in, I will next Monday appoint a provisional administrator, that will allow us to recover FPTC and give hope to thousands of growers who are in this region” , the minister told CRTV.

Earlier, On March 3, 2012, the SDO of Lom and Djerem was asked to seal the premises of the structure.

According to the former Board Chair of FPTC, Nicolas Beti the genesis of the problem of tobacco farmers in the East sparked from a grant of 150 million francs CFA in 2010. “No tobacco grower has seen a grain of this grant”, lamented Nicolas Beti.

Meanwhile the suspended General Manager, Jérémie Gorké Gbaboa who took over from Hubert Jean Kellé in February 2012 failed to attain the meeting the minister organized on Saturday May 4, 2013.

FPTC was created on January 13, 1997 as Société Camerounaise de Tabac (SCT) but mutated to FPTC in 2009.