The head of the commercial service in charge of newspapers and magazines at MESSAPRESSE, Amadou Nsounfon, has attributed the suspension of many newspaper vendors across Cameroon by the company, to the fact that the vendors concerned have individually embezzled big sums of money. Contacted by telephone on August 26, 2014, Amadou told The Post that the suspended vendors currently owe MESSAPRESSE over FCFA 350 million.

MESSAPRESSE, a French company, distributes text books, magazines and newspapers in Cameroon. Though the company officially has no right of monopoly in any of the domains, it has, so far, been the lone enterprise in the distribution of newspapers for many years today, as no other enterprise has dared to venture into the sector.

MESSAPRESSE owns the kiosks that its accredited vendors operate. The accredited vendors pay caution fees which amounts depend on particular towns or localities. The highest amount demanded as caution is said to be FCFA 1 million.

Amadou said the practice over the years has been that the company supplies the accredited vendors with newspapers and magazines, with financial values being more than the amounts paid as caution.

In principle, the vendors have a period of time to sell the newspapers and magazines, after which they are supposed to deduct their commissions on the copies sold, and hand back to company the rest of the money and the unsold copies of the newspapers and magazines.

Dishonesty According to Amadou, the main problem that MESSAPRESSE has often had with vendors is dishonesty.

“These vendors, after selling magazines and newspapers supplied to them, have the bad attitude of deliberately paying only part of the money due MESSAPRESSE, and so their debts to the company keep mounting. MESSSAPRESSE after issuing a number of warnings to a vendor to regularize a situation and all goes in vain is forced to suspend the vendor until the person in principle pays the money owed the company. The company in its ‘good faith’ often accepts a negotiation for payment by installments,” Amadou noted.

The MESSAPRESSE official cited as example its vendor in Kumba, Southwest Region. “The vendor paid a caution of FCFA 750.000, but owes MESSAPRESSE over FCFA 2.5 million. After a number of warnings, we were forced to suspend him.” Amadou questioned what else the company could have done. He noted that the magazines and newspapers that MESSAPRESSE distributes are owned by media houses. The company in turn has to pay for all the copies sold to the media houses, after deducting its own commission.

Amadou said that what MESSAPRESSE, like vendors, gets from each copy of a newspaper or magazine sold is a commission, and that when some vendors fail to pay in the proceeds from sale of these products, the company on its part is obliged to pay up to the media houses. In a bid to encourage its vendors to pay promptly, MESSAPRESSE has since instituted a system whereby bonuses are paid to vendors who record good sales and also pay in promptly. The bonuses which used to be paid annually, is now paid quarterly as further motivation.

Effects Of The Suspension The suspension to many a newspaper vendor has, in the past few weeks, been the subject of a heated dispute between one of the associations of newspaper publishers in the country headed by Haman Mana, and MESSSAPRESSE. Haman Mana is the Publisher of the French language daily, Le Jour. The Haman Mana-led group is arguing that the suspension of vendors by MESSAPRESSE, is seriously affecting the sales of newspapers in the country.

The group is accusing MESSAPRESSE of what it calls bad faith and poor distribution of newspapers, leading to poor sales. The newspaper publishers note that, there are many cases whereby MESSAPRESSE has just one accredited vendor in some large quarters or even in certain big towns and blame this on the inability of the small vendors around cannot raise the amount required by the company to pay for caution.

There is, for example, just one MESSAPRESSE vendor in Bamenda. It is the same story for Limbe, Kumba, Douala IV Subdivision (Bonaberi) and many other areas. This means that, if the lone accredited vendor in such an area is suspended by MESSAPRESSE, as is presently the case with Kumba, the magazines and newspapers distributed exclusively by the company will no longer get to the town. This of course is logically bound to affect the sales of those newspapers and magazines, as some copies would likely have sold in Kumba had they been sent there.

MESSAPRESSE has its own argument. Nsounfon argues that media houses that have signed contracts with MESSAPRESSE, expect payments to be made by the company for each and every copy sold. According to him, MESSAPRESSE has a tradition of making payments to media houses in Cameroon that have signed contracts with the company, on a monthly basis but that they hardly consider whether vendors make payments for newspapers sold to MESSAPRESSE or not. “All the media houses want is their money.”

MESSAPRESSE Ready For TV Debate MESSAPRESSE also alleges bad faith on the part of certain publishers who are “dishonest, ingrates.” Asked why he had to make such an allegation, Amadou said some of the publishers in the group, including one of the Vice Presidents (names withheld) owe MESSAPRESSE money, having been granted loans. He said it was unfortunate that some newspaper publishers that, yesterday came cap in hand, pleading for financial assistance from MESSAPRESSE, are the ones today appearing on TV to call the company names.

Amadou said it was also ironical that the group of newspaper publishers organised a meeting in Douala on the issue of distribution of newspapers and did not invite MESSAPRESSE. Rather, the organisers invited newspaper vendors. He said some of the speakers at the meeting who reportedly made what he said were false allegations against the company, are vendors who have been suspended for embezzlement, and so it was not surprising.

The MESSAPRESSE official said, if the company stayed silent in the past few weeks despite the alleged false accusations leveled against it, it was because the company believes that issues between partners in business should not be taken to the market place. However, Amadou said in the face of the continuous false accusations being raised meant to discredit MESSAPRESSE in the eyes of the public that he will be prepared to face the group of publishers in a TV debate on any issue.

“It is not just a matter of going to the TV to talk. I will present documented evidence to back all what I have to say. At the end of the debate, we will see who will leave the podium in shame. There are many newspapers in this country that record poor sales mainly because of poor content, and the publishers’ dishonestly want to shift their fault onto MESSAPRESSE. This is inadmissible,” Amadou stated.