(Business in Cameroon) - The only candidate in the election for the position of president of the Employers' Federation of Cameroon (Groupement Inter-Patronal du Cameroun - GICAM), the oldest and most important employer grouping in Cameroon; Célestin Tawamba has been officially elected at the end of a General Assembly held yesterday, on 29 June 2017 in Douala. He thus replaces André Fotso, who died on 2 August 2016 in Paris, from illness, after having presided over GICAM for 4 years.

"Our General Assembly, by the massive vote that it has just expressed, has chosen hope, unity, reconciliation and reform! You have demonstrated by your massive support for the programme "GICAM in action", your faith in a GICAM of service, action and concrete results! A more powerful and resolutely conquering GICAM!", declared the new president in his inaugural speech to Cameroonian Employers.

Head of the group Cadyst Invest, Célestin Tawamba is in charge of four companies active in the pharmaceutical and agro-industry sectors. It concerns notably the companies La Pasta and Panzani Cameroon, specialised in the production of pastas and Cinpharm and SIPP (Société Industrielle de Produits Pharmaceutiques), operating in the production of generic drugs and other medical consumables.

At 51 years, Célestin Tawamba will be assisted at the head of GICAM by Sanda Oumarou, former Cameroonian minister, and now president of Cenainvest, a venture capital company controlled by the group Afriland First Bank; and Emmanuel de Tailly, Managing Director of Société Anonyme des Brasseries du Cameroun, leader in the local brewing industry. These two bosses have been respectively elected 1st and 2nd Vice President of this employers' organisation.

With his team, the new president of GICAM promises to stimulate a new impetus within GICAM. "Together, we have embraced the present and the future by collectively giving ourselves new momentum! Renewed impetus to reform our statutes, our organisation and our modus operandi, for greater capabilities and efficiency in our action! New dynamism in mobilising capacity, financial, human, and organisational simultaneously, with a view to achieving the targets that we have just set for ourselves! Fresh impulse so that GICAM is no longer only a force in bringing proposals, but more a force of action, influencing economic, tax and customs policies, to promote local enterprise, and consolidate their competitiveness!", he promised.

Brice R. Mbodiam