At its 117th general assembly in Douala on May 30, 2014, the business leader organisation, GICAM, presented its business plan for a project entitled “one head of business, one plantation” which aims to have businessmen develop agricultural projects.

“We strongly believe that Africa will be the planet’s next breadbasket in the years to come,” stated GICAM president, André Fotoso, while inviting his colleagues of Cameroon’s business leadership community “to get out of the office and get back to the soil,” in order to push for the establishment of “a 2nd generation of Cameroonian agriculture.”

To achieve this, GICAM has marked off almost 43,500 acres of land in 8 villages situated in the Centre region, particularly in the Mbam and Kim departments. According to GICAM’s working group that looked at the project, this part of the country offers a number of advantages relative to other localities and regions: the existence of a road network, the availability of enough land, fertile soil and available labour.

Based on the business plan presented by GICAM members, with an investment of 671 million FCfa for a pilot project of over 617 acres of cassava, for example, at a price of 1.18 million FCfa per acre, the project’s profitability lies somewhere around 16%. “We chose cassava because demand is high, the price is constantly going up and it can be processed into a number of other products,” explained Christian Fotso, Managing Director of Fimex International which presented the business plan to GICAM members on May 30.

Essentially, the project involves the creation of an agricultural works company that would be devoted to the setting-up, running and maintenance of a farm to which would be added a factory for converting cassava into starch. Cameroon imports 1.5 million tonnes of this bi-product annually for agro-foods companies. “The ILO is ready to lend its support to this project that will be a source of employment for young people,” promised Lansana Traoré, local head of the International Labour Organisation.