Anglophone Crisis: Consortium winning the economic war
Senior economic commentators have revealed that Cameroon will lose approximately 150 billion FCFA if the strikes and ghost town operations orchestrated by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium in Southern Cameroons is not brought to a close. Some studies have already indicated that the decision by the Francophone Cameroonian authorities to shut down the Internet services in the Anglophone section of the country has already led to a loss of more than 500 million FCFA in the space of a month.
Economic operators in Nigeria’s Cross River State headquartered in Calabar have also opined that if the Anglophone crisis continues for several months, Nigerian exports to Southern Cameroons and by extrapolation, La Republique du Cameroun will record a drastic drop especially as trade had been intensified in recent years thanks to the construction of the 403 km road between Bamenda and Enugu in Nigeria.
Besides this, losses will also come from the import duties of Cameroonian products in Nigeria, as well as the export duties of Cameroonian imports from Nigeria. With its market of 170 million consumers, Nigeria is Cameroon’s major trading partner with about 20% of exports to Yaoundé. According to Trade Minister Luc Magloire Atangana Mbarga, trade between the two countries peaks at 382 million CFA francs a year.
The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is capitalizing on the weakening state of the economy of the State of Cameroon and is forging ahead with plans for an independent state of Southern Cameroons.
By Rita Akana
Culled from CCN
