Companies, civil society and public organisations have been urged to join the Business Coalition Against Corruption, BCAC, initiative in a bid to improve on the business climate in Cameroon.

The call was made on December 10, by the President of the Business Coalition Against Corruption, Ralph Manyi, during the presentation of BCAC activities review at the La Falaise Hotel in Yaounde.

Briefing the media on the importance of joining the coalition, Ralph Manyi stated that the BCAC initiative is vital in preventing corruption because it proposes an approach for developing and implementing ethics and compliance programme in business through capacity building and exchange workshops.

He remarked that while the BCAC recent partnership with GICAM has been an encouraging sign in the fight against corruption, the coalition, however, still encounters a lot of challenges which impede its fight against corruption.

According to the BCAC boss, the absence of major structures and companies in the coalition and coming and going out of the coalition by member companies, are some of the challenges the coalition faces. Raph Manyi stated that fighting corruption in Cameroon needs more than just lip service and legislation. “It has to come from the will of the people and the ability to work and handle things ethically,” Manyi intimated.

He urged public organisations and small and medium size enterprises to join the coalition and improve on the economic climate in Cameroon, while declaring that the BCAC’s initiative is in line with the Government’s national strategy to fight against corruption.

Presenting BCAC review activities, the Managing Director of Guinness Cameroon and member of BCAC, Baker Magunda, said the coalition is a public private partnership which aims at supporting the Government to achieve its vision 2035 emerging economy ambition.

The Guinness MD said, even though BCAC has over 45 active members, improving the business climate and combating corruption still needs the partnership of more companies and organisations. To him, these companies need to give in to the initiative so that many people and sectors will be sensitised on the disadvantage of corruption which, he said, ruins development and impoverishes people.

He revealed that companies can join the BCAC initiative by attending a training session and demonstrating a genuine desire to promote, within the given enterpris,e an ethics and compliance culture. Magunda stated that membership is free for all small and medium size companies with less than 150 employees, while a membership fee of FCFA 1 million will be charged for larger companies.

In an open discussion session, officials from BCAC member companies empahsised the need to involve strategic sectors like the Cameroon’s taxation, custom and forestry sectors in the initiative. They opined that effective cleanup must be done in these sectors so as to get Cameroon out of the red zone of Transparency International.

The Business Coalition Against Corruption is a joint initiative of the Business Council for Africa, Cameroon, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit, GIZ. It is governed by a steering committee made up of GIZ, the British High Commission, Transparency International, National Anti-Corruption Commission, Guinness Cameroon and Dana Petroleum Cameroon.