By Noela EBOB BISONG
The Board Chair of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, Hope Sona Ebai has died. News of his demise broke out in the morning of Wednesday, March 4, 2026. The SUN learnt that the Board Chair passed away at the General Hospital in Douala, where he had been hospitalised since Friday, following a a malaise he suffered at home. He quits the scene at the age of 72.
The SUN also gathered that Sona Ebai responded to office matters on Tuesday, March 3, while in hospital. His death the following morning, thus sent shockwaves not only within the CDC and Limbe, but the entire South West region of which he was a bonafide son, and across the nation of Cameroon as a whole.
Hope Sona Ebai was appointed Board Chair of the CDC in May, 2021, following a CDC Board Of Directors extraordinary meeting in Yaoundé. He replaced Justice Benjamin Itoe at the position.
Born in 1954 in Kumba, Sona Ebai joined the CDC at a time when the corporation was hard hit by the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon. The new Board Chair was expected to usher in a fresh revival to safe the CDC. He harnessed much effort to secure funding from government to ensure the modernisation programme of the corporation, which involves acquiring new machinery to increase yields. Sona Ebai quits the stage at a time when the corporation is still galvanising effort to see the modernisation programme come to light, having received positive signals from the State.
Before joining the CDC, Hope Sona Ebai, served as director-general of the National Cocoa and Coffee Board, as well as the general secretary of the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries (COPAL) that accounts for 75% of the global cocoa production. As the secretary-general of COPAL, he coordinated the organization of the summits of African cocoa producers’ Heads of State in Abuja (Nigeria) in 2006 and Accra (Ghana) in 2007. He is also said to have successfully convened four international conferences on research in the cocoa industry.
After his time at the COPAL, the agricultural economics graduate (from Ohio State University) landed at the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), an organization financed by renowned partners like American billionaire Bill Gates, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Sona Ebai is also remembered as one of the experts who helped developed the national strategy for the development of the cashew sector approved in 2018.
Aside his managerial capabilities, Sona Ebai was also involved in the Chieftaincy scout of his native Manyemen village, in Nguti Subdivision.
His death has been described as a big loss for his native Kupe Muanenguba Division, the South West Region and Cameroon as a whole.
He dies few weeks after Mbong Michael, Deputy General Manager of Maetur, who also hailed from Kupe Muanenguba Division of the South West.
At press time, the remains of Hope Sona Ebai had been deposited at the Bota Hospital mortuary in Limbe.