(Business in Cameroon) – On November 1, 2024, cassava producers in Pouma, a town in Cameroon’s Littoral region, finished a training session designed to help them seize opportunities from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This training was part of the “Capacity Building Project for Production, Processing, and Marketing for Women Entrepreneurs in the Cassava Sector within the AfCFTA,” led by Cameroon’s Ministry of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.
During the training, participants learned about the organization and functioning of the AfCFTA, cassava processing, and entrepreneurship. The National Shippers’ Council of Cameroon (CNCC) pledged to support them in their export efforts to tap into the AfCFTA market, which boasts around 1.3 billion consumers.
Cameroon began its first exports under the AfCFTA in October 2022, issuing the first certificate to GIC Afatex, allowing it to export goods such as safou, dried pineapples, and ginger to Ghana. That same month, two other Cameroonian agri-food companies, Cameroon Tea Estate and Ndawara Tea Estate, followed suit, exporting 38.6 kg of Cameroonian tea to Ghana.
The first Cameroonian import under this preferential regime occurred on July 2, 2023, at the Port of Kribi. It involved a shipment of resin imported from Tunisia by Inoda Industries Sarl, a company specializing in paints and other coating materials. On July 5, 2024, at the Port of Douala, Commerce Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana presided over the first containerized export of 99.4 tons of aluminum ingots under the AfCFTA. This shipment consisted of four 20-foot containers of aluminum ingots produced by the Cameroon Aluminum Company (Alucam) and was sent to Algeria.
“This is the culmination of negotiations that began in Egypt in November 2023 at the intra-African trade fair, between the CNCC, which hosts the ad hoc subcommittee for monitoring and activating guided trade in the unified African market in Cameroon, and Alfilect,” Minister Atangana stated.
