Cameroon primary products accounts for modest economic growth in 2023 - Report.

The NIS on Tuesday September 10, released a business summary that gave details on the economic and financial status of businesses in Cameroon for 2023.

It noted that although revenue growth was modest, increasing by just 0.9% compared to a 20% surge in 2022, certain sectors played a key role in generating cumulative profits.

The sectors driving this profit growth, it stated, were the cocoa, coffee, tea and sugar, as recorded by global Information, Communication, Financial and Insurance Activities

Despite these sectoral successes, the NIS highlighted that 22 out of 38 business sectors remained in deficit in 2023, with 19 of them already facing deficits dating back to 2022. 

However, overall business activity still yielded profits, with revenue rising by 0.9% and the profit margin rate improving to 4.5%, a 0.2 percentage point increase from 2022.

According to the NIS, the continuous improvement in overall profitability since 2019 shows that every franc in revenue into business activity is generating more and more profit for businesses.

Regarding value added, VA the NIS report disclosed that 86.3% of companies recorded a positive VA in 2023, slightly down from 87.1% in 2022. 

Total VA saw a minimal increase of just 0.1%, following a strong 14.8% growth in the previous year. The value-added rate slightly declined from 26.2% to 26.0%.

The NIS report, local experts stated, is based on a sample of 1,091 Statistical and Fiscal Declarations, DSF from representative businesses across various sectors.

This sample accounted for 98% of total revenue and 75% of permanent jobs in 2023, according to the NIS.

These findings corroborate another report the NIS made public recently asserting that Cameroon’s trade with other African countries looks set to be more lucrative than with traditional trading partners in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, generally.

The NIS report showed that intra- African trade fetched some 379 billion FCFA during the 2023 business year alone. 

Though the NIS stated that overall exports within Africa witnessed a modest increase of 10.6%, actual revenues hit 379 billion FCFA in the 2023 business year alone.

On the specific trade exports, the NIS singled out key exports to include crude petroleum oils that accounted for 19.2% of the total package; household soap, accounting for 14.5% and sawn wood [semi-processed timber) at 5.3%.

Other exports included food preparations, accounting for 4.5% and semi-milled rice at 3.3%.

The National Institute of Statistics, NIS stated that Chad emerged as Cameroon’s top African customer, representing 39.3% of the market value of what citizens from that neighbouring country brought.

They are followed by South Africa, whose share stood at 12.6%; Nigeria, 10.4%; and the Central African Republic, CAR, with 9.0% of Cameroon´s total exports to other African countries.

This positive outlook therefore led to improvement in Cameroon’s trade deficit with other African countries as the deficit fell to 62% in 2023, according to the NIS.

In quantitative terms, the NIS stated: “Cameroon’s trade deficit with other African nations dropped significantly in 2023, falling by 62.3% to 97.2 billion FCFA; down from 257.8 billion FCFA in 2022. This data made public recently by the National Institute of Statistics, shows a notable improvement in the country's trade balance with the continent”.

It added that the improvement stems from a sharp reduction in Cameroon’s imports from other African countries.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3228 of Friday September 13, 2024