(Business in Cameroon) - On August 18, 2014, in order to defend itself from the Ebola epidemic which has been raging in West Africa with some cases diagnosed in Nigeria, the Cameroonian authorities have decided to close its borders with the African continent’s top economy. With a market of some 170 million consumers, Nigeria is Cameroon’s leading supplier (22% and 17.8% of imports in 2011 and 2012) with trade amounting to 382 billlion FCFA per annum, according to the Cameroonian Minister of Trade, without counting contraband trickling across the 1,500 km of shared border between the two countries.

Ten days after this decision to close the borders, complaints are already mounting. “I was supposed to go to Nigeria to renew contracts with my suppliers, but I can’t go now because of the government’s decision,” stated Christopher Lena, Vice-President of the Camp Yabassi Nigerian business men in Douala – a locale where Nigerian car part imports are sold in high volumes. “I put in orders to Nigeria. Unfortunately, they have not arrived as yet because of the borders being closed,” states another Nigerian national.

Indeed, car part distributors are worried about running out of stock in the coming days. The same goes for dealers in electrical appliances, beauty products, detergents and many popular imports from Nigeria that flood the Cameroonian market. At the same time, the sale of oil products in the northern region of the country, usually supplied primarily by Nigeria, is expected to also be hit.

Cameroonian farmers who trade with Nigeria, and mainly “okok” producers – a vegetable that is highly prized in Nigeria and also has a solid market in Cameroon, have good reason to be worried. Aluminium du Cameroun (Alucam), owned by Rio Tinto Alcan, and its Alubassa and Socatral subsidiaries which are major providers of aluminium utensils and sheets to the Nigerian market also have cause for concern.