Briefs on the economy

ARSEL opens tender for audit of electricity companies
    Cameroon’s Electricity Sector Regulation Agency (ARSEL) has just launched a call for expressions of interest to recruit experts to participate in a restricted bid to “audit the accounts of some electricity sector companies”.
These audits concerns construction works on the Kribi gas plant and the charges determined by the KPDC (which built and now manages the plant) for the 2012 to 2014 period; fuel charges and the irrecoverable debts for the public electricity company (Eneo) for 2015; and the DPDC’s charges in 2009, 2010 and 2014. The DPDC built and manages the Dibamba domestic heating oil plant.

Huawei, Area offer free phone insurance in Cameroon
    Huawei is offering smartphone buyers in Cameroon a 3-month insurance through insurance company Area covering loss and theft. Huawei will provide a replacement handset for a month, enough time for Area to locate and recover the handset thanks to pre-installed software.
    If the phone is found within a month, the customer returns the borrowed phone, but if it is not found, the customer keeps the replacement handset and is reimbursed 85 percent of the purchase cost of the lost or stolen one.

    After the 3-month period, customers can pay XAF 7,000 a year to extend the insurance, compared to around XAF 12,000 for non-Huawei phones. Area’s other products include personal emergency and location services to policyholders.

BEAC raises liquidity ceiling for commercial banks
    Considering the reduction in oil prices, which concerns five of the six CEMAC countries which produce oil (Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Chad; Central African Republic does not produce oil), the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) has raised the financing ceiling for member States.
    This was revealed after the first session of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee for 2015. The commercial banks for these countries can obtain more financial resources from the central bank if the need arises for liquidity to redistribute in the form of bank loans to individuals or companies.
    Cameroonian banks can now access up to 100 billion FCFA instead of the previous 60 billion FCFA. The same goes for Gabon and Chad. The refinancing ceiling for Equatorial Guinea has been raised from 60 billion FCFA to 120 billion FCFA while Gabon’s was increased from 30 billion FCFA to 40 billion FCFA. The Central African Republic’s refinancing ceiling is now set at 15 billion FCFA, according to reliable sources.
    With this optimism, the BEAC is projecting an overall growth rate of 4.2% for the CEMAC zone, instead of 2014’s 4.4%. Inflation is also expected to decline to 2.8% from last year’s 3.2%.