(Business in Cameroon) - On September 16, 2020, French retail multinational Carrefour will inaugurate a new store in the Akwa commercial district of Douala. Built on an area of 1100 m², including 700 m² sales area, Carrefour Market Akwa (located at "Ancien Dalip") will create 80 direct jobs, and as many indirect jobs, we learn from credible sources.

This supermarket, which will offer a wide range of food products (including products "made in Cameroon") will become the 2^nd store opened by this operator in Douala, after that inaugurated in Bonamoussadi, in 2017, internal sources within the company indicated.

A third Carrefour store is built inside the Douala Grand Mall, a huge shopping and entertainment infrastructure, which is scheduled to open this month (September 2020).  

The newly inaugurated supermarket included, CARREFOUR now has three active stores in Cameroon. This includes that in Ekié, Yaoundé, inaugurated on October 9, 2019.

In the framework of its sub-Saharan Africa expansion plan, Carrefour (which partnered with CFAO retail in this endeavor) intends to open five (5) supermarkets in Cameroon by the end of 2020.

On October 9, 2019, during a press conference in Yaoundé, Jean-Christophe Brindeau, CEO of CFAO Retail, announced that in addition to the store in Bonamoussadi, Akwa, Douala Grand Mall, and Ekié, Carrefour would launch its very first Supeco store in Cameroon this year. Specialized in Cash & Carry (low-cost wholesale technique), Supeco will join BAO (first brand to try this experience in Africa) on this segment of mass distribution. BAO was officially opened by the Casion group on March 28, 2018, in Douala.

In the first quarter of 2021, Carrefour will also open the Carrefour PlaYce hypermarket in Yaoundé therefore completing the first phase of its expansion plan in Cameroon. Overall, the retail giant would have opened six supermarkets investing about XAF80 billion.

"We have started considering other cities. We are likely to open new supermarkets outside Douala and Yaoundé in the next 3 or 4 years,”  said Luc Demez, CEO of CFAO Retail Cameroon, after the press conference of October 9, 2019.

Brice R. Mbodiam