The Cameroon Employers Association known in its French acronym as GICAM is demanding increased support to the private sector from government to mitigate Covid 19 shocks on the economy. This follows a study carried out by the business cartel in which 92% of production units have been severely affected by the pandemic.
Lamenting that the virus has eaten deep into the country’s economy, GICAM reveals that, 52% of Small and Medium sized enterprises SMEs have been hit hard by the shocks of the pandemic.
“SMEs and service companies are the most affected. The proportion of SMEs reporting a very negative impact is higher (61%) than that of large companies (27%). Similarly, 58% of service companies reported being very negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic compared to 38% of industrial companies,” GICAM explains.
40% of the companies declared that their production is directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. While 69% of industrial companies stated that, their production is directly affected, compared with only 26% of service companies. For large companies, 50% claim their production is directly affected, compared with 36% of SMEs.
The situation according to GICAM has been compounded by tax pressures with the hotel, restaurants, events, tourism, transport, artisanal and trade distribution sectors affected mostly taking the heat.
Bemoaning the absence of accompanying measures from the government, GICAM has urged the state to take concrete measures to ensure that, the health crisis does not trigger a more difficult socio-economic crisis, with the fall in commodity prices and security challenges already pinning down the economy. Mechanisms to assist enterprises are encouraged.
The Employers group has however, said it is also taking action with trade unions to see that companies do not retrench workers inappropriately and guarantee that workers are protected from the virus which has already infected more than 1800 persons in Cameroon.
The preliminary study of GICAM was carried out between April 13 to 21, 2020 targeting 100 companies in the country.
