“We appeal on government to review reports of the Northwest Ad-hoc Committee”

Crecy Tawah

-Retired Diplomat, Minister Plenipotentiary, Business man and politician

Crecy Tawah

Crecy Tawah is a retired Cameroonian Diplomat and Minister Plenipotentiary. His last posting as a Diplomat out of Cameroon was in Washington D.C. Back in Cameroon he worked in the Ministry of External Relations. Since retirement he has been into a cross section of initiatives ranging from Business to development projects in collaboration with many other development oriented minds in Cameroon. In this interview he appeals to the Cameroon Government to review reports of the Ad-hoc Committee for the evaluation of resources in the NW Region that was created by Governor Aboubakar Ahmat. Talking about some problems presently plaguing Cameroon he says Cameroon belongs to everybody and that everything should be done preserve our two inherited cultures. Specifically, he is involved in the quarry sector, Real Estate and the sale of Building materials. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante. He begins by explaining why politically he is of the ruling CPDM Party.

Excerpts

Politically I am of the ruling party, the CPDM. During the last political exercise though I had 28000 votes I lost the Parliamentary seat to Hon. Nchinda who won and the exercise was democratically carried out so I duff my hat to him. I hold positions of responsibility in both the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon and I am also the head of the Alanyifu clan; one of the largest clans in Mankon. I am the overall head of that clan and of the Tawah family more precisely. 

How has your political orientation helped you to contribute to the development of the immediate community from which you come?

I chose the CPDM because I was convinced with the policies of its leader President Paul Biya. His idea of Communal Liberalism and balanced development was ideal. I know that no human organisation is 100% perfect but I chose the CPDM because it is the best when you take a look at it from an overall perspective. When you look at the political landscape of Cameroon, it is the best in the market and I believe that through the CPDM Cameroon will achieve its development goals faster than with any other political player that is on the scene at the moment.

How satisfied are you with the evolution of the Sociopolitical landscape in Cameroon at the moment?

I am very satisfied in a number of ways but there are also challenging issues. There is the Anglophone problem that has been there for some time. It is a problem that must be dealt with. It is not the only problem in Cameroon but it is among the thorny issues in the country including the Boko Haram problem in the North of the country. There are also developmental issues affecting the various parts of the country. Cameroon is a country with two inherited cultures and as an Anglophone; I feel that our own aspect of the culture has been ignored in the mainstream of political dialogue. That is why I praise President Paul Biya for introducing a Common Law Bench at the Supreme Court and doing a couple of other things to re-instate the Anglophone legal system and a couple of things to ensure the smooth flow of the English Educational system. It is a nation building process and it has started. Anglophones must be involved in the general process and treated as part of it. However we should avoid problems, violence and destruction while seeking for solutions. When you are in the international arena that’s when you appreciate the importance of the Bilingualism that we enjoy in Cameroon. Across the Continent we talk of African unity but that unity is not achievable when in a small country like ours we cannot successfully preserve what we have in our cultures. I also challenge Francophones who believe that when you talk of the Anglophone problem it means that you are challenging the unity of the country. That’s not true. When we have two cultures we should for example in each of the Technical fields use the culture that is better as the measuring rode. If this is done, then the country will be a better one for all of us. There are a lot of Cameroonians of Francophone origins who are regarded as an integral part of Anglophone culture. For those of us who went to the Yaounde University, there was nobody who was more Anglophone than Professor Ntamark and all Anglophones were proud of him notwithstanding his Francophone origins. The Fobete family constitutes another shouting example. Anglophoness is not a question of exclusion but of how Cameroon becomes a better country. 

Can we take a look at the medium through which you realise your development goals?    

I am in my sixties and if you look around the world, you will notice that most people who have had a reasonable impact on their societies fall in this age group or are older. In the United States, the richest people are dominantly those who got into business when they retired. So I am simply trying to contribute my own little quota in terms of what I have seen across the world. How do we bring in those ideas? I am into local building materials thanks to Professor Uphie Melo through MIPROMALO who is now Rector of the Ngoundere University. We produce burn bricks; the classical ones and those that are produced by my company. So when you go into a sector, see what you can bring in that is new. When we got into the quarry sector we were challenged by Aboubakar Ahmat Governor of the North West Region at the time and following the directives of the Prime Minister Philemon Yang created an Ad-hoc Committee for the evaluation of resources of the North West Region and I had the privilege of being made the President of that Committee. The governor said rather than looking at the hills around us as obstacles to development, we should look at them as developmental opportunities through the use of rocks found in them. As a result of that, there are now three quarries in the North West Region. When Governor Lele L’Afrique came, he continued with the initiative. Some of the ideas still have to be pushed forward. For instance the idea of the commercial free trade zone has not yet been implemented and we are hoping and praying that government will implement that. This will prevent Cameroonians from going to other Free Trade Zones and spending their money there. If that is done here, people will come in from Gabon, Chad, Central African Republic from Ghana and in the process will be spending money throughout their stay in Cameroon as they travel to Bamenda. You should understand that being an English speaking zone, we can serve as a bridge between West Africa and the dominantly French speaking Central African countries. Cameroon will become win-win because some people will prefer to come and buy in Cameroon rather than go to Nigeria.

Who were the members of this Ad-hoc Committee for the development of North West?  

Members of that group included Edison Fru Ndi of Dreamland Enterprises. Look at some of the things he is doing. These were included in some of the challenges that were put forth by Governor Aboubakar Ahmat. Look at the things Senator Awanga is doing. Some of the things are inspired from there. Look at what one of the richest persons in the country Elhadj Baba Danpullo is doing and its great input into the economy. As an Ad-hoc Committee we have challenged some of the Movers and shakers of the Region not only to invest in the country but to invest in the North West Region and they are beginning to do that. Other members of that Ad-hoc Committee included Minister J.B.Ndeh, Mr. Offong of the SDF, Benedict Fultang, Ndofeke Olivier, the Regional Delegate of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises for the North West Region and many other proud sons and daughters of the Region. The work that was done was selfless. We appeal on government to review reports of the Northwest Ad-hoc Committee for evaluation of natural resources. Let private members also view and implement some of the ideas that were put there and implement them. 

You certainly have a last message that you will put out to your political audience and the Cameroonian audience in general.  

Cameroon belongs to all Cameroonians. Little does it matter whether you are of the CPDM, SDF, UDP or UPC? Any improvement you bring is for everybody. In that process, all of us have to put our hands on the plough and push it forward. The North West is very strong in the Micro Finance Sector. We are also a net exporter of money. Let us start using the money that we are saving. Let us not only be in the Saving Industry. Let us be in the Investment Industry. When you save and the money is taken out and put in the Central Bank, others borrow that money and invest; they make more money out of your sweat and only pay you a tiny little bit. Let our financial institutions review their interest rates. Why don’t the Banks reduce their interest rates on the money that Credit Unions deposit there and the Credit Unions in turn do the same to clients who save money with them?

Take our people in the Diaspora; they send a lot of money here. Previous studies especially one led by former Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni showed that from four financial institutions more than 45 million dollars was sent to Cameroon. At the time it was more than 25 billion FCFA. That’s only from Four Finance Institutions. That tells you that when you are looking at the sum total from all the financial institutions it will be enormous. If this money when it comes is sent more into investment rather than consumption the results will be inestimable. Instead of my children sending money for me to buy bread, let them have me draw a business plan and then they push money into that business plan. We should simply review our mentalities. Some of the burn bricks we produce are used in Limbe, Douala, in the North and in Yaounde which means that they are good so others should get in let us do more. 

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“We are the leader in Micro Finance Sector in Cameroon”

-Tienchou Jonas, General Manager of the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League CamCCUL.

Tienchou Jonas, the General Manager of CamCCUL has stated that the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League remains the leader in Micro Finance Sector. Cooperative Credit Unions affiliated to CamCCUL he emphasises remain the most trust worthy in Cameroon and proof of their stability is the fact that CamCCUL has been there since 1968. He was speaking recently after the 49^th AGM of the network in Kumba. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante of Cameroon People Magazine.

Excerpts

Tienchou Jonas GM CamCCUL

Some quarters have intimated that the Northwest Region is in the lead as far as growth of Cooperatives is concerned. How far is this true and if true, then why this trend?

 I think the Northwest Region leads in growth in terms of the number of Credit Unions and other forms of Cooperatives followed by the West Region and Southwest before you can talk about the Littoral and Center Regions. This is due to the dynamism and culture of the population. Before cooperatives came, these people were already grouping themselves together and saving their money. You already had what is locally referred to as Njangis and Tontins. That is the base of the creation of Cooperatives in Cameroon. In terms of Credit Unions, Northwest has the highest number of Cooperative Credit Unions followed by the Southwest Region and West Region in the third position. Because what we notice is that we have mostly branches of the Credit Unions from the Northwest and the southwest Regions in Douala and Yaounde. For example if you take the External Branches of Credit Unions in Douala you will have close to 46 branches and 43 in Yaounde. So in terms of number and even membership the North West comes first, South West second and Littoral third.

What were those key things that held your attention during this year’s Annual General Meeting that just took place?

We had our 49^th Annual General Meeting of the CamCCUL Network in Kumba on Saturday June 24. Before then we had an enlarged sitting with a group of about 100 Credit Unions. That’s the biggest in Cameroon and we discussed their strategies for the coming year and took stock of what happened in the past year 2016. During the General Meeting we reviewed the performance of the Credit Unions and the performance of chapters because we are organised in chapters. For example in the North West we have the Bamenda Chapter, Fundong Chapter, Kumbo Chapter and Nkambe Chapter. In the West Region we have one chapter; the Bafoussam Chapter. In Littoral we have the Douala Chapter. In the South West we have three Chapters; Fako, Kumba and Mamfe Chapters. We were simply trying to analyses the performance of the various Credit Unions and the Chapters. The performance analyses were done using certain criteria. It was done in terms of growth, service mobilisation, in terms of deposits, in terms of loans, net results among others. In the classification following performance analyses Bamenda came first, Douala Chapter came second and then Fako Chapter in third position. The key issue was to permit Credit Unions to take note of the problems they have in carrying out their activities; for example in loan granting, loan recording and delinquency. We also touched issues on personnel because if you have good personnel then you should expect good results. Capacity building was therefore one of the focus. In general, the result was positive.

Your sector serves like the pivot of the economy. How optimistic are you considering the results that you see on the field?

Of course in terms of growth we are growing and if you don’t grow you will die. We are the leader in Micro Finance Sector in Cameroon and we will fight to remain on top. It is difficult to stay at the top but easy to climb to the top so what we do is we develop our services. CAMCCUL started in 1968 but the first Credit Union was created in 1963 so we think we are in the market. Many other forms of Cooperatives come and after one or two years they disappear but we are there. I want to assure you that we are guaranteeing sustainability with what we are putting in place.

You certainly have a key message that you will want to send out to interested parties

Credit Unions affiliated to CAMCCUL is a safe place for Cameroonians to keep their money because we act like a watch dog in these various Credit Unions. Some may have problems but a majority of the Trade Unions are performing. They should have confidence in Credit Unions affiliated to CamCCUL and they should also watch out because many Credit Unions imitate our logo while they are not affiliated.

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