Yaoundé (AFP)
"It was crazy" as a bet, remembers Gaëlle Laura Zambou Kenfack, a 38-year-old Cameroonian entrepreneur.
After 10 years at BMW in Germany as a consultant, she returned to Cameroon at the end of 2016 and created a company specializing in the production, processing and distribution of local products.
Like her, many business leaders are betting on "Made in Cameroon" (MIC), a concept launched by the private sector 5 years ago to support local production and consumption, in this Central African country of some 25 million inhabitants still very dependent on the outside and whose economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic.
Stores labeled "Made in Cameroon" have already opened in several cities across the country.
"Five years ago, there was only one store dedicated to the MIC. We are now at 33", rejoices Carine Andela, president of the Association of Ingenious Entrepreneurs of Africa (Asenia).
An employee of the Zenda Market arranges the spices shelves, in Yaoundé on August 4, 2021 Daniel Beloumou Olomo AFP
Ms. Andela has started farming fish herself.
While local aquaculturists have imported fry from neighboring Nigeria a lot, "what is interesting is that some young people have started producing them" locally, says Andela.
- "Not rocket science" -
In Biyem-Assi, a popular district of Yaoundé, the company created by Gaëlle Laura Zambou Kenfack, Kenza Market, is one of the very first MIC businesses to have opened in Cameroon. Spices, dried fruits and vegetables, vegetable oils for the skin or marinades adorn the shelves. One of the flagship products of this store is "spicy salt", a mixture of salt and several local spices. "Our concept is to promote" Made in Cameroon "by highlighting local products because that is what makes the economy grow," said Ms. Zambou.
For the regular supply of her shop, she is in contact with a dozen local producers from whom she buys the raw material before processing it. The business manager, who has another store in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, wants to open more quickly.
Samuel Safo Tchoffo has also taken the plunge by creating his own company.
Its pilot pumpkin seed shelling plant is located in Montée Jouvence, another popular district of Yaoundé.
"It took 27 years of research to arrive at this plant", insists immediately with a broad smile this former engineer of the oil sector, today in crisis because of the fall of the price of the barrel.
The production unit is made up of a chain of 11 machines assembled to convey, shell and sort the pumpkin seed, then press the kernel to extract oil.
On a production line of the Blesolac company, in Douala on August 5, 2021 Daniel Beloumou Olomo AFP
"The machines are totally made in Cameroon, and we have made a point of doing it not only to transform locally, but also to show young people that it can be done ... and that it is not rocket science ", explains Mr. Safo.
His factory also produces soap and low-fat squash seed flour.
"I am interested in the virtues of this oil. I have often heard of it. I came to buy it to discover it", confides a client, Juliette Mbango, met during a fair.
- Funding problems -
But for Édith Laure Pokam, management consultant, the MIC still suffers from major handicaps.
"Many consumers are willing to buy what is made on site, but they have doubts about the quality," she said.
Another obstacle: the price.
"The promoters of the MIC are not yet able to compete with imported products because they are cheap," she continues.
Manufacture of fish sausage, in Douala on August 5, 2021 Daniel Beloumou Olomo AFP
The same goes for entrepreneurs.
For Ms. Andela, "Made in Cameroon" certainly has a future ahead of it, but the initiative comes up against structural problems, particularly in terms of "funding for the purchase of machinery and the acquisition of raw materials. . There are also management problems. "
"It is political force that can change things. Some have not yet understood the stakes of what we are doing," she continues.
© 2021 AFP