Cameroon: The hydrocarbons sector will account for 70% of company sales by 2022

Cette branche d’activité a bénéficie de la conjoncture mondiale liée à la hausse des cours du pétrole et l’appréciation du dollar. De plus 4 autres branches d’activités ont contribué de façon significative à la hausse globale du chiffre d’affaires des entreprises camerounaises sur la période sous revue.

According to the summary note on the "Economic and financial situation of companies in 2022" produced by the National Statistics Institute, sales by companies in the modern sector grew by 8.1% over this period. "Sales jump by 17.7% after 9.6% in 2021.

In the particular case of the extraction of hydrocarbon products and other energy products, we note an increase in company sales of around 69.8%. This increase is due to "the cumulative effect of the dollar's appreciation and the surge in oil prices on international markets, following the economic effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict", the document states.

The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in February 2022 led to disruptions in international supply chains. The appreciation of the dollar, mentioned above as the reason for the good cash position of oil and gas companies, showed an upward trend throughout the year.

We have gone from an average exchange rate of 1 dollar equivalent to 500 FCFA, to an exchange rate of over 600 FCFA. The highest exchange rate this year was 623,760 FCFA for 1 dollar, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Ocde). This rise in the greenback is the result of various measures taken by the FED (US Federal Reserve) to curb inflation in the United States.