Cameroon: Quality Counts

Seventy per cent of Cameroon’s workforce is involved in the agricultural sector. Near the coast, the country’s fertile soil lends itself to the cultivation of bananas ...

...cocoa, oil palms, rubber and tea. Inland, cash crops include coffee, sugar and tobacco. Coffee is a major cash crop in the western highlands, and in the north, natural conditions favour cotton, groundnuts and rice. Cameroon has one of the best-endowed primary commodity economies in sub- Saharan Africa and enjoys political and social stability. It also has one of the highest school attendance and literacy rates in Africa.

Despite a number of natural advantages, Cameroon is still in the process of cultivating a favourable business climate. Much of the population earns a living as poor subsistence farmers using basic equipment and tools. For some years, the Government has been making efforts to upgrade its enterprises to meet the exacting standards of international markets.

Within the framework of its economic partnership with Cameroon, the European Union is implementing a large programme to give the economy a competitive edge and enable it to compete in the global marketplace. The programme comprises four components: agreement on the economic partnership; strengthening and upgrading the productive capacities of enterprises in Cameroon; support to standardization and quality infrastructure; and business environment and investment promotion. UNIDO has been entrusted with the implementation of the second and third components, namely competitiveness and quality. €2.5 million has been allocated for three years. One of the challenges is about building the capacity of the country to participate in international standard-setting activities and to sensitize SMEs to the need for food safety and quality improvement principles so that they become competitive on the export markets. Although testing laboratories, certification bodies and inspection agencies exist in the country, they need to be upgraded before their services can be internationally recognised. One of the means promoted by WTO is “accreditation” against ISO standards, which proves competence and provides trust between parties. At present, Cameroon, relies on the services of outside accreditation bodies.

Despite a growth spurt in Cameroon’s economy over the past few years, it remains vulnerable to fluctuations in the price of commodities on international markets. Its relatively small industrial sector that includes petroleum, aluminium, agro-industries, textiles and wood suffers from low performance caused, among other things, by an inability to match competitors, a lack of technology, problems of SMEs in obtaining financing, an underdeveloped standardization and metrology system, high production costs and the absence of a qualified workforce. Many of these constraints will be addressed by UNIDO in the course of the project.