(Business in Cameroon) - The Nigerian press is concerned by the stalemate in the crisis in the Anglophone are of Cameroon. According to Business Day, the demands which have paralysed for several weeks the economic activity in the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon are creating losses of over USD 732 million for Nigeria, thus over FCfa 450 billion.

These losses, per the newspaper, are the result of the drop in Nigerian exports to this area of Cameroon, where exchanges intensified these past years with the almost completed construction of a 403-kilometre road between Bamenda (Cameroon) and Enugu (Nigeria).

The losses are also linked to the entry fees for Cameroonian products in Nigeria, as well as exit fees for Cameroonian imports from this country, along the border in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon.

Indeed, Business Day reveals, “Cameroonian imports from Nigeria are submitted to the payment of an average legal duty of 19.10%, including a value-added tax (VAT) of 17.5% and other hidden taxes. On the other hand, Nigerian imports from Cameroon are submitted to the payment of a tax of 11%, including VAT”.

As a reminder, with its market of close to 170 million consumers, Nigeria is the main supplier of Cameroon (22 and 17.8% of imports in 2011 and 2012), with whom exchanges peak on average at FCfa 382 billion per year, according to the Cameroonian Ministry of Commerce; excluding smuggled products, popular on both sides of the 1,500-km long border between the two countries.

Brice R. Mbodiam