Business owners in Cameroon will soon reap greater dividends from their investments. The good news is contained in the 2013 Act on incentives for private investments in Cameroon. Since most African counties, including Cameroon, are yet to be industrialised, President Paul Biya gave his assent to the Business Incentives Act of 2013 that clearly spells out the advantages potential and existing investors stand to enjoy in the country.

The law, which has five chapters and 35 articles, stipulates that investors in Cameroon will not pay the usual 10 per cent or more as taxes. Instead, they will not pay anything for five years upon importing material. It also says when companies are strong enough to begin exporting their products, they will pay just 5 per cent in duties.

Businesses that have been operating for six to 10 years will equally pay just 5 per cent for imports. Besides fiscal and customs exonerations, investors will also benefit from administrative and financial incentives such as visa facilitation, creation of a one-stop-shop to ease investments and the opening of company accounts without complications.    

Debriefing investors on the Act, the Inspector General in the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, Martin Yankwa, disclosed that no country in the world develops without industrialisation. “It is time to process our primary products,” he said. He added that when raw material processed into finished products amounts to 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, such a country can be termed industrialised.

According to the incentives, investors will process 40 per cent of raw material in the agricultural and forestry sectors and 15 per cent in the mining. Since the law was promulgated, some 50 investors have signed deals with the State to invest FCFA 550 billion, expected to create 16,000 jobs.