Central Africa (CEMAC): the future destination to invest in the world

The CEMAC (Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale) zone is constituted by 6 countries in Central African region that are: Cameroun, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Chad, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. While CEMAC’s total population of 36.7 million people (in 2010) makes it roughly the same size as Poland, its combined GDP of $70.9 billion compares to that of Iraq. The gross domestic product (GDP)

growth, which reached 4.3% in 2010 against 1.8% in 2009, was supported by the increase of the domestic demand, which contributed 9.3 percentage points to real GDP growth.

With the exception of Cameroon, each CEMAC country has a dominant export commodity accounting for over 80 percent of total export revenues. CEMAC countries, with the exception of the diamond-exporting Central African Republic, are net oil exporters, and their economic development is dominated by developments in the oil market. Although CEMAC’s trade with

the Eurozone economies continues to be important, over the last two decades CEMAC countries have been trading increasingly more with China and the U.S. the share of CEMAC’s exports and imports to eurozone economies has declined from 0.64 percent and 0.57 percent,

respectively, of world trade in 1990 to 0.26 percent and 0.41 percent of world trade in 2011.

Interestingly, over the same period, the share of CEMAC’s exports to the U.S. and China, as a

percentage of world trade, have grown by a factor of two and thirty, respectively.

In view of these results are already seeing the CEMAC is a real opportunity for Spanish

companies. But to get a clearer picture of business opportunities in the CEMAC should identify

goods with high potential to export or import.

On import, the sub-region could buy food such as rice and spices (peppers, onions), milk and wine, articles of textile of all kinds, electronic gadgets, agricultural machinery and motorcycles.

Indeed, with 35 million inhabitants, the annual consumption of the sub-region clothing products could be around 150 million meters of fabric. Cameroon, households spend an average of       $ 120 million for the purchase of clothing and footwear products, the market value of the       sub-region for these products is estimated at $ 250 million. At this value, it should be added the amount spent by households and businesses and governments for works including textile work wear, wall coverings and furniture, etc… However, local products are very competitive compared to imported products which constitute the bulk of the supply on the markets. The value of imports of textile and footwear is estimated at about $ 272 million, against only $ 98 million in 2001.

These imports are mainly composed of fabrics and finished products (clothing for men and

women, including coatings and shoes of all kinds.

Among electronic gadgets, we have grouped the domestic machinery electrical or electronic or

office use including: electronic machines (calculators of all kinds), machinery processing

information ( computers and accessories ) electronic devices in common use (clippers and

electric razors, flashlights , radios, recording devices of sound or images , television receivers ,

etc…) , telecommunication devices . This section does not apply to electrical industrial

equipment.

As food that can be import the CEMAC countries we can list wine (in many supermarket in

CEMAC countries we didn’t see for example wine from Spain), onions : for example in

Cameroon, the importation of onions represents 60% of the consumption and that importation

come from Netherland and Belgium; and milk.

Like other consumer products, the potential seems important for electronic gadgets in

conjunction with the large segment that represents the youth population of Central Africa.

Cameroon, nearly 15% of the population owns a television, 50% a radio. Thus, the sub-regional

level, this product range covers about 20 million inhabitants. The market for electronic gadgets

is expanding. Reflected in the value of imports stood at nearly $ 308 million in 2005 against $

170 million in 2001. The local supply is relatively zero because virtually no companies

manufacturing electronic gadgets, the companies in this sector are rather specialized in the

assembly of imported parts. Products in this category are still mostly imported from Europe,

even if there is a real breakthrough products of Chinese and Korean descent.

Finally we can see that Central Africa is a good destination to invest.

Bernard Clery Nomo

International Delegate CEMAC 

Globalider