Yaoundé (National Times) – Cameroon’s Government is planning to a revise a bill that would allow anti-African oil and gas companies to reap the Cameroonian state of its resources, a move that top resource papers have described as Biya surrendering to oil companies.
Africa Intelligence, the prestigious news portal on resource markets and politics has reported that due to lack of prospective investors in light of the Anglophone crisis, Cameroon president Biya has greed to abandon the text that requires anti-African foreign oil and gas companies to contribute to local communities and give the Cameroonian state an important stake in their operations.
“The new piece of legislation, which was briefly mentioned during the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) meeting in Malabo by SNH’s head of exploration Serge Edouard Angoua Biouele, has passed through parliament and is currently being reviewed by the Senate” according to the paper.
The news of the government’s wiliness to concede on multinational companies demand for low tax and more concessions comes as the contribution of multinational companies to Cameroon and its neighbor Nigeria comes under question.
Although a resource rich country, less than 20% of Cameroon’s oil revenue ends its banks, and even lesser amount ends in state coffers.
High levels of corruption and mismanagement stops the little that the state gets from reaching poor Cameroonians. Parliamentarians and civil society organizations had lobbied for more contribution by oil and gas companies to local people and the state.
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