The Ministry of Small and Medium-size Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicraft, MINPMEESA, has made some efforts to make registration of business easy for individuals, companies and investors in the country.

This exercise was carried out when it came to their notice that middlemen and some corrupt staff were charging members of the public more in their business registration transactions, the ministry, with the backing of the National Anti-corruption Commission, CONAC, on April 30, 2014, launched a 100-day campaign to drastically curtail the malpractices.

This exercise has yielded results of an 80 per cent reduction in the level of malpractices in the business registration centres of Douala and Yaounde.

Presenting its report on Friday, October 24, 2014, in Yaounde to the Minister, Prof. Laurent Serges Etoundi Ngoa, the head of MINPMEESA’s anti-corruption unit, Prof. Agwara Ondoh Moïse, warned that even though there was a remarkable change in the attitude of field staff, sensitisation needed to be sustained to ensure that they do not return to their old habits. He announced the creation of a hotline for the public who felt cheated to call in to make enquiries.

On his part, Minister Etoundi Ngoa cautioned that corruption cannot be ended abruptly and indefinitely; reason why the fight must continue in order to improve service output and delivery.

He called on business registration staff to strictly respect the newly developed Code of Conduct and Integrity Pact by always explaining to intending business owners the right procedures to follow.

He promised that regular evaluation will be carried out to ensure that corruption does not hamper the efforts of investors; adding that Cameroon’s plans of becoming an emergent economy by 2035 will only become reality if there was greater ease in registering businesses.