Cameroon economy suffers under Boko Haram

By Ismail Maliki in Maroua
The insurgency of the jihadists in Northern Nigeria has not only brought loss of life to Northern Cameroon, but has seen the economy of the area plummet to an all time low.
    Cross-border trade between Cameroon and Nigeria was the first to be hit by the reigning insecurity in the North. Fearing for their lives, Cameroonian traders no longer cross with their goods into Nigeria. Before the advent of Boko Haram, at least 5000 cattle used to leave Kousseri for Nigerian markets each Tuesday. Foodstuff that was exported from Maroua, especially cereals and onions, constituted a billion-franc-business. All these have been brought to an abrupt halt, leaving businessmen desperate.
    “It is over a year since I last took cattle to Nigeria,” a cattle merchant told the press, adding that “it is foolhardy to attempt crooing over because Boko Haram has mired every market frequented by foreigners,” Alhadji Ahmadou explained, complaining that “transferring the cattle to the South is expensive, and there are few buyers in Adamawa which makes the beasts very cheap there.

    The once-thriving tourism industry in the North is arguably the biggest hit by the Boko Haram saga. The extreme North whose tourist attractions are prominent in the tourists’ itinerary has been declared a no-go-area by most western governments. This has cut-off sites like the Waza Game Reserve and Rhumsiki Camp which received tourists in their thousands. The town of Waza which used to boom with tourists has become a ghost town.   
    Long considered the backbone of the Northern economy, tourism cut across society generating jobs for guides, carvers and artists as well as hoteliers. Ever since Americans, Canadians and French tourists stopped visiting with fat wallets, northerners who used to earn a decent living in the industry have become destitute.
    Official figures say 53 tourists have visited Northern Cameroon since the beginning of 2013; as opposed to thousands hitherto.
    “We’re practically jobless,” laments Mr. Daballa, who used to serve as a tourist guide. “Many of us now do menial jobs just to make ends meet,” he complained.
    Tourist guides are not alone in their plight. Local carvers and artifacts dealers are staring at full shelves, with nobody to buy their wares. Many hotels in Maroua are also threatening to fold up, since their only guests are the civil servants on mission in the North.
    The informal sector has not escaped the crisis either. Commercial motorcyclists are complaining of running at a loss ever since the institution of a night curfew by the former governor, Awa Fonka Augustine.
    “We used to work two shifts with my bike, from 6am to 3pm and from 3pm to 12pm”, a motorcyclist complained. “Now I work only one shift and am not sure of recovering the money with which i bought the motorbike.”
    The customs sector has also been dealt a heavy blow with barely 20% of the usual revenue collected this far. An insider at Amchide, one of the frontier posts, confided that monthly revenue has dropped from 150 million to 30 million. At this rate locals have been asking how much longer they could bear the crises.