By Njodzeka Kernyuy
The Cameroon government has disbursed 15.6 billion CFA francs to clear off accumulated salaries for workers of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC).
This money comes to complete the salary debt of 35.75 billion CFA francs that CDC was owing its workers since 2018.
The payment is part of measures by the government to revamp the corporation that has seen its production badly affected by the ongoing Anglophone armed conflict.
Formerly the second largest employer after the state, the CDC slumped in the early days of the Anglophone Crisis after separatists started attacking its plantations and killing its workers. Others had their fingers cut for working for the company.
As a result, many workers abandoned their jobs and plantations in risky areas remained abandoned. The banana sector was worse affected as many banana estates completely shut down.
Based mostly in the South West region, the CDC produces banana, rubber and oil palm. It recently added cassava to the crops.
The corporation began paying workers’ accumulated wages in December 2024, following a series of strikes. It had been operating at a loss and could not break even before a government subvention helped the company to steadily regain momentum by paying its workers.
The General Manager, Franklin Ngoni Njie, has issued directives to workers on how they could begin receiving the second wave of their accumulated wages.
“The State requires that every beneficiary of this operation expressly issue an acknowledgement to this effect,” he said in a statement.
“In this connection beneficiaries are called upon to peruse and sign the acknowledgement documents available in the various units of the corporation. The disbursement of each beneficiary’s second instalment (44%) payment shall be preceded by the reception of the said Acknowledgement Document for onwards transmission to the competent State agency,” he added.
Before the money was released, MMI spoke with CDC Board Chair, Hope Sona Ebai, who reassured workers of the payment of their arrears.
