Cameroon: Gov’t Supports Bamenda Machine Project with CFA 20 Million
Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
29 August 2007
Posted to the web 29 August 2007
AllAfrica.com, Washington
Choves Loh
Minister Etoundi Ngoa during a working visit urged operators to group themselves into cooperatives to ease funding.
North West operators in the small and medium sized sector have acknowledged inspiration from the visiting Minister, Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa who spent August 22-24 encouraging and promoting activities of the young ministry in Bamenda. On the spot, the minister listened to heights and speed brakes that haunt progress in the sector. Speaker after Speaker during the visit hailed the creation of the ministry as the positive way forward after years of crying in the rain.
At the Bamenda Handicraft Cooperative society, the “power fit” project site in the neighbourhood of Abangoh, the Mbuy and Family industry, the Cameroon Agro-industrial promoters and at the Integrated Farming Group , the problems were similar (crippling taxes, unfair competition, inadequate financial support, difficulties in getting raw materials etc),.
It was also a rare moment to show case the potentials of the sector in the North West. The “Power Hit elect Construction” project, a modest industrial complex impressed the minister with their sustainable development ability in the manufacture of agricultural equipment like tractors, tippers, loud speakers, power audio amplifiers and equipment for industrial use.
Fru Emmanuel, the initiator expressed the need for a permanent workshop to withstand vibration machines, installation of length machines and a link to the external world to ensure expansion. The minister announced CFA 20 million in government’s support for the project while the Mbuy Family Industry which excels in the production of cement blocks, clay fired bricks and boundary pillars said they have been crying in the rain with unfair competition from the dark. Saah Solomon, production manager of the Bamenda Handicraft Cooperative appealed for support to acquire a transportation van for the collection and distribution of crafts, simplified procedures for the exportation of crafts and the erection of a guest house. In all, Prof. Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa acknowledged great prospects
for the sector in the North West with a lot of talents to show. The need to appoint division Delegates to the take the ministry’s assignment to the grassroots was also echoed.