The privatization of state-owned enterprises in Cameroon which comprised an integral part of the prescription by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to enable Cameroon redress glaring shortcomings in its economy during the mid-1980s and late-1990s has seen the government of Cameroon put on sale several of its public enterprises in diverse sectors of the economy. Under a series of Structural Adjustment Plans (SAPs), with guidance and funding from the Bretton Woods institutions the privatization exercise alongside other complementary reforms undertaken from 1989 to 1999 resulted in restoration of growth outcomes in the economy and placed the Cameroonian economy on course for sustained period of growth from the year 2000 to 2003, as well as significant amounts of investments flowing into its economy. However, in spite of the improvements in the economic indicators attributed to the structural reforms implemented, critics castigate the privatization process in Cameroon as a smokescreen as they refer to the pervasive corruption that accompanies the process, maintaining that it’s the politicians charged with the processes who are feeding fat on it leaving the common man to languish. The process is also criticized for its relative slowness and halfhearted commitment on the part of the decision-makers.
Evidently, privatization of public enterprises in Cameroon has generated a wave of opposition and outcry against it from workers of the privatized public enterprises who are laid off and from indigenous populations. Indigenous communities and civil society organizations resist the forceful transfer of state-owned enterprises along with their lands without the consent of the local communities affected. This notwithstanding privatization is could be referred to as a ‘mixed’ blessing to Cameroon as its long term impacts of efficiency gains as well as foreign investments it attracts portends good prospects for economic development, but is not been felt by the common man. In any case, despite its shortcomings the process is irreversible as conditionality-driven aids from donor agencies emphasize the need for it.
