Life & Death of Business Tycoon, Fotso Victor

94-year-old business mogul and politician, Fotso Victor, who died on Friday, 20 March 2020 in Paris, has been buried in his native town, Bandjoun in the West region.

Fotso Victor owned the Société de Fabrication de Cahiers, Safca, an exercise book manufacturing company, Pilcam (Electric Batteries), Unalor (Matches) and Commercial Bank of Cameroon (CBC) among other chain of businesses.

             

Fotso Victor’s casket

   Fotso was born in 1926 in Bandjoun, West Region of Cameroon. At the age of 15, he quit school to work in plantations in Foumbot and Bafang. It was in 1947 that he moved to Mbalmayo and started business. He constructed a commercial center nine years later.  In 1955, he engaged in transport business but stopped it in 1960.

                In 1970, he created the Société Africaine de Fabrication de Cahiers (SAFCA). He later created PILCAM, specialised in the production of electric batteries.

                With his business growing, he diversified after 1960 to public transport. In partnership with Frenchman, Pierre Castel, a big boss at Brasseries et Glacières Internationales (BGI), he invested in wine and spirits import.

                Some years later, another French man, Jacques Lacombe, then Managing Director of Société Industrielle et Forestière des Allumettes (SIFA), a subsidiary of Compagnie du Midi, introduced him to the industry. With the support of this former Polytechnique student, who passed away in 1996, Victor Fotso gradually expanded his activities.

                Owner in 1970 of the modest Société de Fabrication de Cahiers, Safca, he found himself a quarter of a century later, at the head of about ten companies in various sectors: electric batteries (Pilcam), hospitality (Ibis Douala), matches (Unalor and CIS), packaging (Fabasem), chemistry (Fermencam), agro-industry (Proleg), food (Sopral). In 1997, Victor Fotso created Commercial Bank of Cameroon (CBC-Bank), the first independent Commercial Bank in Cameroon.

                He was re-elected in abstentia as Mayor of Bandjoun after the 9 February 2020 municipal elections.

                Victor Fotso in July 2019 donated FCFA 1 billion to the Roman Catholic Church in Bafoussam as part of his contribution to the construction of a cathedral in the region.

                The patriarch made the gesture on 29 July 2019 in Bandjoun during a thanksgiving mass celebrated by the Bishop of Bafoussam, Dieudonne Watio and his auxiliary, Mgr Emmanuel Ndassi.

                The multi-billionaire had promised to assist the Catholic Church in Cameroon in its commitment to the construction of a Cathedral in the West region headquarters Bafoussam. The Cathedral was evaluated at some 6 Billion FCFA and scheduled to end in beginning 2021.