(Business in Cameroon) - In Cameroon, 90% of companies have difficulties in selling their products, according to the assessment of the socio-economic effects of the coronavirus (Covid-19) in Cameroon conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) from April 27 to May 10.
According to the INS, these difficulties can be explained by the decrease in internal customers, based on the opinion of 84% of business leaders. For large companies, 62% of the business leaders questioned indicated a decline in activity, and 30% of them point the closure of borders as the reason for that. Overall, 70% of the companies negatively impacted by the Covid-19 point at difficulties related to external financing.
Also, almost all of the business leaders (95%) say they are experiencing a drop in domestic demand and 76% deplore a drop in their domestic supply. Sixty percent (60%) of large companies indicate difficulties in external supply, while 50% of them mourn the drop in external demand. Segmenting the result by branches of activities, companies most affected by the drop in external demand include those in forestry, health, and manufacturing industries.
The INS survey was conducted with a sample of 770 enterprises: 9.5% large enterprises (GE), 56.2% small and medium-sized enterprises (modern SMEs) and 34.3% informal production units (IPUs). Of these enterprises, 74.6% were in the tertiary sector, 20.0% in the secondary sector, and 5.4% in the primary sector. Of the 1,310 citizens questioned in the framework of the survey, 1,208 are employed and 102 are unemployed or looking for work.
Sylvain Andzongo