– Assures management he will strictly adhere to presidential instructions suspending all transactions of land surrender on CDC leasehold in Fako
– GM says company still requires more efforts to return to sustainability
By Simon Ndive Kalla
The Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, Mr. Engelbert Viang Mekala has assured CDC management of close collaboration with the administration and the guarantee to strictly adhere to the Presidential Instruction to suspend all transactions of land surrender on the CDC leasehold in Fako.
He made the statement during a courtesy visit to the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) on Wednesday, March 20as part of his contact tour in the Fako Division of the South West Region. The SDO was received by the General Manager, Mr. Franklin Ngoni Njie and some top managers of the CDC at the Head Office in Bota Limbe.
In his exposé, the General Manager highlighted the operations of the corporation and challenges which, he attributed to the devastating effects of the socio-political crisis. Noting that the corporationstill requires a lot of efforts to return to sustainability.
The General Manager said the crisis has dealt with CDC.“It is true we may still be the second largest employer after the State but the workforce has dropped from above 20,000 permanent workers to below 14.000”, FranKlin Njie opined.
He added that the crisis affected all the units of CDC.In the peak of the crisis 9 out of 11 rubber plantations were shutdown, 5 out of 7 palm plantations were shut down and 5 banana estates were shutdown.
The GM regretted that two important development projects viz: Oil Palms in Donga Mantung Division in the North West Region and Rubber/Oil Palms in the Manyu Division of the South West Region have been aborted because of the crisis.
The GM decried the down turn of the revenue from produce sales from FCFA 55 billion FCFA to FCFA 3.8 billion FCFA in 2019 and stated that if there is relative improvement, it is thanks to the strong support from the State particularly the administration and the forces of law and order.
“The Head of State took a decision that despite all and for strategic reasons the CDC should remain operational.” Franklin Njie said.
He added that with the improved security situation and resumption of activities in the cooperation, various estates’ production is progressively improving and revenue grew from FCFA 3.8 billion in 2019 to FCFA 18 billion in 2023.
“It’s a big progress but it is still far from the pre-crisis production levels and a lot of efforts still requires for CDC to return to sustainability” Franklin Njie stated.
Like Oliver Twist, the GM solicited for more support and collaboration from the Administration to carry out raids in smoking out criminals who have taken refuge in CDC camps under the guise of being Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The SDO thanked the General Manager for his eloquent presentation of the CDC and recognized the important role the CDC plays as a state corporation and as a giant in the agro-industry in the country. The SDO further recognised the devastating effects of the crisis in the operations of the CDC.
Viang Mekala assured the GM that all hands shall be put on deck to keep the CDC afloat despite the challenges. While pointing out some of the difficulties expressed by the local councils and other institutions to acquire land for expansion, he recalled that in a meeting in his office the General Manager equally exposed some of the difficulties faced by the corporation concerning illegal encroachments by some individuals into the CDC leasehold. The SDO assured CDCmanagement that the Administration will not relent its efforts to accompany the corporation to accomplish its mission.