Reducing importation: SMEPA, BESTPACK Sarl sign convention to boost plastic production.

The convention which enables SMEPA to accompany the company to boost production and provide solutions to challenges faced by Cameroonian SMEs in packaging was signed at SMEPA Head Office in Yaounde yesterday.

It was signed on behalf of SMEPA by the General Manager, Jean Marie Louis Badga and on behalf of BESTPACK Sarl by its Director General, Ousseni Sazi.

The tax and customs incentives convention, it should be said, falls within the framework of Law No. 2013/004 of 18 April 2013, put in place by government to offer tax and customs reduction opportunities to companies investing in Cameroon.

SMEPA boss, Jean Marie Louis Badga, in his address said plans by BESTPACK Sarl to set up a manufacturing unit of packaging and plastic bottles in Douala is relieving and comes in as a solution to challenges faced by most SMEs which necessitated SMEPA to launch the CAMPACK-Q program which is already tackling some of the challenges.  

Badga said packaging is a major need for Cameroonian SMEs and even more so for companies in the Central African Sub-region and causes limitation of the strategic development of several companies, shortages and massive expenses through importation.

He said the investment of BESTPACK Sarl is very relevant within the context of structural transformation of the national economy through import substitution as contained in the National Development Strategy, NDS30.

SMEPA General Manager disclosed that the convention with BESTPACk Sarl is the 66th signed with Cameroonian SMEs and the 50th since the government mandated the structure with the responsibility.

He said the convention is prove of government’s determination and resolve to accompany SMEs with a panoply of tax, customs, financial and administrative incentives.

Badga said the convention offers BESTPACK Sarl many advantages towards productivity, competitiveness and prosperity.

“Our hope is to see your commitment and your determination to make BESTPACK Sarl a real flagship of the Cameroonian economy, a prosperous economic model that pulls up other SMEs,” Badga told the BESTPACK Sarl Director General.

He also urged him to do his utmost to satisfy the increasing needs of the company’s diversified clientele, bring more significant contribution to the recovery of trade balance.

SMEPA boss urged him to scrupulously respect the contractual obligations, in particular, the implementation of his investment program, the production of an annual activity report, the payment of the annual fee and the reception of the monitoring or control missions of the assigned public services.

While assuring of the ready availability of SMEPA to accompany him accomplish his goals, Badga urged the Director General of BESTPACK Sarl to be an ambassador of the SMEPA by spreading the good news of tax and customs incentives offered by government to other SMEs who are still in doubt, hesitant or insufficiently informed.  

BESTPACK Sarl boss expresses gratitude

Speaking after singing the agreement, the Director General of BESTPACK Sarl, Ousseni Sazi, expressed gratitude to SMEPA for the opportunity and also thanked government putting in place the incentives to support nascent companies. 

“This agreement will greatly facilitate us with issues relating to customs activities and taxes. It will permit us to accelerate work and we take this opportunity to thank SMEPA,” Sazi said, adding that with the convention, they will not rest on their laurels but do their utmost to show they deserved it.

He said his company aims to “facilitate Cameroonians to have access to anything related to plastic packaging, especially biodegradable packages that the state recommends”.

Sazi said the company has authorisation to sell throughout the country, the CEMAC zone and the rest of the continent and envisages producing “8000 tons of packages. BESTPACK Sarl, he added, offers employment to many Cameroonian youths and already has ready customers and other companies interested in its products.