Cameroon: Let Them Eat Local Rice
By Adam Sneyd As corn, soybean and wheat prices have surged over the past two months, many commodity watchers noted that rice prices were not trending higher. The latest projections reported in the Wall Street Journal, however, indicate that Asian rice will be subjected to considerable upward price pressure in the coming months. This is a worrying development for Cameroon and other African countries that depend on rice imports to meet their basic food needs. If Cameroon’s rice import bill does balloon later this year, the country’s households that are vulnerable to food insecurity — nearly one in three according [...]
Johns Hopkins to study oral cholera vaccine in Cameroon
The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health was recently awarded a four-year, $5 million grant to promote the global use of an oral cholera vaccine. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued the grant to the Delivering Oral Vaccine Effectively program in order to provide relief agencies and governments with technical assistance on how to use the vaccine, evaluate use practices and develop field surveillance methods. “We believe this grant will greatly facilitate the appropriate use of the new cholera vaccine,” DOVE Director and professor Dr. David Sack said. “In partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and [...]
2012 Cameroon Economic Outlook
The economy of Cameroon should continue to progress in 2012, when it is expected to show growth of 4.4% compared to 4.1% in 2011. At sector level, the outlook for 2012?13 indicates that the primary sector will show 5% growth, thanks to average growth of 5% in the food-crop sub-sector and 5.7% in the cash-crop sub-sector. The secondary sector is expected to grow 1.4% over the same period, driven by the construction industry, better energy supply and higher production in the food-processing and manufacturing industries. The tertiary sector should progress 3.7%, thanks notably to buoyant conditions in transport and telecommunications. Higher growth in 2012 risks generating [...]
Rethink Teaching of Science, Maths
By Dr. Alex O. Awiti The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Kenya Government recently signed a $43 million loan agreement. The funds will go towards improving the quality and relevance in engineering education at the university level.The ultimate goal is to train a critical number of qualified and skilled engineers to drive the key sectors of Kenya's Vision 2030. This loan agreement is both laudable and critical. However, I am not sure that investing in university engineering faculties is sufficient to stimulate a deep and sustain a culture of scientific and engineering innovation. I have argued in this column [...]
Procter & Gamble CEO: Africa ‘Next Frontier’ for Business
In corporate boardrooms and global-investment seminars, more CEOs and business leaders are talking about Africa. That was evident at a recent New York Stock Exchange investor conference, where along with references to Africa as the “new Asia” or “home of the next Google,” there were forward outlooks by Wall Street analysts, representatives of the continent’s 29 stock exchanges, and presentations on Africa’s tech industry, now claiming mobile-banking innovations outpacing the United States and Europe. “What’s happening in business on the continent will reshape everything people know or thought they knew about Africa,” said Rosa Whitaker, longtime Africa business expert and [...]
Africa’s Mobile Health Revolution
By Kristin Palitza A nurse working in a remote clinic in Mueda, a small town in northern Mozambique's Makonde Plateau, receives a shipment of vaccines from the national health department. Using special software on her mobile phone, she sends out a mass text message to alert mothers in the area about the availability of immunisations. She also uses the phone to schedule appointments, access patient records and order new vaccines when stock runs low. It is - for now - a theoretical scenario on how mobile technology can help improve childhood immunisation in sub-Saharan Africa. But it will soon become [...]
Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation | Catalyzing Africa's Economic Transformation