Maibeta Inc, a startup located at Silicon Mountain in Buéa, officially launched a fundraising campaign to mobilize $35,000 (a little more than CFA19 million) this day, May 2, 2018, and it will end on May 31, 2018.  

According to an official statement, the subscription will be collected through the indiegogo.com and the different mobile money operators.  

Bamaj Namata, the founder, reveals that thanks to these funds, the startup will develop a digital platform listing technicians qualified in renovation, repair or construction works so as to be able to create a network of 500,000 professionals (underemployed or jobless for the time being) by 2022.  

“In the long term, this innovation will help increase the need for technicians leading to a boost in their revenues and an improvement of their living conditions. It will also favor the management of urban spaces. All in all, the platform will give rise to a new generation of trusted, credible and highly qualified technicians in Cameroon”, he said.

Let’s note that the platform launched in 2015 is the result of one of the founder’s personal experience. Indeed, one night, in 2014, he noticed that his sink was leaking. For days, he was unable to find a technician to fix it for him. Even after the works the plumber he found did, the sink was leaking days after. It then occurred to him that he could build a digital platform thanks to which technicians selected based on their performances could be hired with a simple mouse-click.

BRM

All the structures of Olembé Stadium will be available by May 2018. This is revealed by Sam Thamin, the managing director of GRUPPO PICCINI SA., in an interview published on April 26, 2018, in Cameroon Tribune. The director explained that two vessels with those prefabricated structures have left Italy. The first one containing 10,000 tons of materials will accost at Douala port on April 27 and the second one (20,000 tons) will arrive in Cameroon during the first week of May 2018.

Samin Thamin indicated that the company would start the installation of the metal structure in the first week of May 2018 and complete by the next visit of the AFCON representatives (June 2018). He further informed that the turf has been planted.

For the record, in the framework of AFCON Cameroon 2018, Gruppo Piccini is in charge of the construction of a sports complex with a 60,000 seat stadium for CFA163 billion. This complex should be completed by September 2018.  

S.A

On April 19, 2018, the managing director of SONARA, Ibrahim Talba Malla, officially announced that from April 15 to July 2018, the production units of this oil refinery will go through a scheduled stoppage in order to realize the connection of the units built during the phase I of its project in Limbé.  

The managing director also assured authorities, the public and its investors that necessary measures have been taken to supply sufficient and quality oil products to the market during the 3 months of this scheduled stoppage.

For the record, since 2010, SONARA has initiated a vast programme to modernize and extend its equipment. During the first phase (completed in 2017), the company increased its annual storage and production capacity from 2.1 million to 3.5 million tons.

During the second phase for which the country is looking for funds (CFA400 billion), SONARA will build a hydrocracker that should help refine the crude oil produced locally.  

BRM

Next week, the construction of a 3-star hotel for the ONOMO brand will be officially launched in Cameroon. Unlike what Philippe Colleu, founder of Onomo International said at the economic forum held in Paris on January 31, 2013, this hotel will be built in Douala, not in Kribi.   

The construction works will be handled by the South African group Raubex which is currently in charge of the Douala Grand Mall & Business Park’s construction.

Let’s note that the characteristics of this hotel have not been disclosed but, in 2013, the group announced that it would be a 120 room hotel.

For the record, on November 21, 2017, Onomo group announced that it has secured €106 million (CFA69.4 billion) from CDC Group plc and CIC Capital. In the official statement, it published in that regard, the group informed that thanks to this fund, it would build 10 new business hotels offering quality services at an affordable cost in countries such as Cameroon, Congo, Uganda, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Let's remind that currently, the group has 10 hotels (a total of 1,400 rooms) in Dakar, Abidjan, Libreville, Bamako, Lomé, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Conakry and Kigali.

Brice R. Mbodiam

On April 11, 2018, the cornerstone of Douala Grand Mall & Business Park (whose construction works had started since January 2018) was laid in Douala.

According to official sources, during the first phase of this construction, an 18,000 m² rental mall outlet will be built and during the second phase (which should be launched after the first phase is commissioned during Q2, 2019) a 5-star hotel and an office park will be built.  Let’s remind that the rental mall outlet will host a supermarket operated by the French group Carrefour,  a multiplex of five movie theaters operated by the Nigerian group Genesis, restaurants, leisure complex and shops.

David Morley, Head of real estate at Actis reveals that the construction of Douala Grand Mall & Business Park (the first major real estate project of Actis group in Cameroon) will cost CFA80 billion. Moreover, Mathurin Kamdem, managing director of Craft Development (the gigantic real estate project’s proponent which successfully convinced Actis LLP to invest in the project), informs that during the construction, local companies will supply different building materials and equipment. The value of these supply is estimated at CFA30 billion.  

According to the project’s proponent, the Douala Grand Mall & Business Park will help create 4,000 direct and indirect jobs and in the words of Luc Magloire Atangana, the commerce minister,  “Actis is setting Garden of Eden in Cameroon”.

It is to be reminded that this project is benefiting from the tax and customs incentives prescribed by the April 2013 law on private investments incentives in Cameroon.  

Brice R. Mbodiam  

During the cabinet council held on March 29, 2018, in Yaoundé, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, Cameroon’s minister of public works informed that the linear density of the national road was increasing at a satisfying pace. According to the official, between 2010 and 2016, this density increased from 5240 km to 6760 km, on a target of 9558 km by 2020. 

The minister also revealed that the roads infrastructures being currently constructed cover a linear density of 2883 km of national and communal roads for a total cost estimated at CFA1,650 billion. He further explained that this will substantially increase once the roads inscribed in the 3-year urgency plan are constructed.

During the council, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi pointed out that the main difficulties to the realization of these infrastructures are the delay in the vacation of the spaces they are to be constructed on, the counter-performance of companies chosen for the works, the late payment of invoices…

As far as the highways are concerned, it was revealed that Cameroon, under the aegis of the minister of public works, has initiated the construction of Yaoundé-Douala and Kribi-Edea highways. Yaoundé-Douala highways will be constructed in two phases. The first phase (the 60-km  Yaoundé-Bibodi itinerary with express lanes) is 60% constructed. As for the second phase (the 140-km Bibodi-Douala section), the technical studies are being conducted  

Finally, the Kribi-Edea highway (realized at 79%), will be partially commissioned in June 2018.

S.A 

In a newsletter published last month (February 2018), ENEO revealed that in the framework of its 2018 Action plan, it would construct 100,000 new electrical connections to grant half a million people access to electricity.

For that purpose, the electricity provider set an investment budget of CFA37.5 billion for 2018. According to the company, 50% of this budget will be used to renovate, modernize and extend the distribution network. The company’s officials explain that this investment is crucial since due to the commissioning of Lom-Pangar dam (6 billion metric cube), the power generated is sufficient to reduce the electricity shortages but these shortages are now caused by the multiple incidents along the distribution network.

Brice R. Mbodiam

On March 16, during the designated question time in plenary, Jean Claude Mbwentchou, the minister of housing announced that the government was exploring ways to minimize the cost of the social housings’ construction.

In that regard, the minister explained, Cameroon has initiated discussions with CIMENCAM, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, to set purchasing offices in order to reduce the cost of building materials and consequently make the social housings affordable to modest income earners.

To justify the ongoing discussions, Jean Claude Mbwentchou indicated that for the time being, the housing construction costs are onerous for many reasons.  For instance, he said, there is the shortage of government’s lands and the compensations for the lands taken for the construction are high. Moreover, the building materials (cement, iron, steel sheets, etc…) are expensive and the tax burden is high. In addition, there is the fact that materials are produced and transported on a small-scale.  

S.A

During the cabinet council held on March 1, 2018, in Yaoundé, the minister of Housing Jean Claude Mbwentchou accused Alliances Construction Cameroon of being the reason for the delays observed in the social housing project.

He was detailing the state of the project backed by Banque Atlantique and which was assigned to the Morrocan group’s subsidiary in 2014.

Jean Claude Mbwentchou pointed out “Alliances Construction Cameroun S.A.’s noncompliance with the requirements to submit its subcontractors to be approved ». The minister also informed that those subcontractors failed to do the works expected from them due to their low technical and financial abilities. “This is one of the main reasons for the delays observed and the difficulties to meet the delivery times”, he added.

According to the minister, it is crucial to mention that according to the MoU, the studies should cost CFA2 billion (pre-tax value) and the works CFA38 billion (pre-tax).  The budget for technical inspection, supervision and development missions was not included.

« We had to launch a rationalization process to manage the budget and after tough negotiations with  Alliances Construction Cameroun, we were able to set a budget for the said services”, Jean Claude Mbwentchou revealed. He also said that the services will cost CFA879,240,592 and will span over a period of 13 months.  

S.A

The Bank of Central African States BEAC has chosen 5 companies to submit their bid for the restricted international call for tender for the realization of a mockup and an architectural & engineering studies for the construction of the central bank’s new national headquarters in Yaoundé.  

According to the official statement published in that regard, BEAC has chosen Architecture studios Groupement Ataub/Baticoncept, Groupement JP Vigueur et associés-Josket-Fatsons, Groupement Dgla Sud-JCN-Verdi and Groupement Sata Afrique-Concept A Sarl. 

For the record, the bank has already commissioned DMH group to conduct the topographical survey on the site.