(Business in Cameroon) - In Q1-2020, a Development Financing Assessment (DFA) published by the UNDP questioned the effectiveness of some representative bodies in Cameroon.
These bodies include the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Handicrafts of Cameroon (Ccima), and the Chamber of Agriculture, Livestock, and Forestry of Cameroon (Caefc). Their main mission is to act as a channel of communication between the private business community and public authorities in their respective areas of competence. However, according to the UNDP, their "scope and audience” are still limited because economic operators do not consider them as joint structures since they are public bodies. Also, the assessment reveals, other business groupings, like the GICAM (created in 1957) seem to have been fulfilling the missions of the Ccima and the Caefc.
The assessment, therefore, recommends a real transformation of these representative bodies so that they can be recognized as joint structures by economic operators. To this end, says UNDP, "consultations should be opened to evaluate the costs and benefits of a change of the status of these public bodies to private bodies.”
S.A.