On Thursday 16 June 2022, Fish&Co, a company controlled by Cameroonian billionaire Albert Kouinche, signed an agreement with the Investment Promotion Agency (API) for a project to produce fish and fry, raise marine and freshwater prawns, and build a fish feed factory. Under the terms of this agreement, Fish&Co will benefit from certain tax and customs exemptions over a period of 5 to 10 years, as provided for in the 2013 law (revised in 2017) on incentives for private investment in Cameroon.

In detail, the Fish&Co project will be spread over three sites. At Dibamba, in the Littoral region, the plan is to produce 5 million fry a year, build a fish feed factory with a capacity of 12,000 tonnes, and produce 5,000 tonnes of tilapia fish a year. In Kribi, the seaside resort in the south of the country, Fish&Co plans to farm marine and freshwater shrimp, with an annual production of 100 tonnes. On the reservoir of the Lom Pangar dam, in the eastern region, the company aims to deploy a system for collecting fish production, in partnership with small-scale fishermen.

Importations massives

“This project will make a huge contribution to the aquaculture sector in Cameroon. The demand for fish products in our country is around 500,000 tonnes, and we only produce around 300,000 tonnes. So there’s a gap to be filled, and it’s projects like this that will help us do it,” says Divine Ngala Tombuh, deputy director of aquaculture at the Ministry of Livestock. “For the time being, the gap is being filled by imports, which bring in around CFAF 100 billion a year in foreign currency. Through projects like these, we need to harness this CFAF 100 billion,” he adds.

For the launch, construction and installation of the Dibamba factory (more than 6 billion Frs) with the Brazilian and American partners, which should take place in the not too distant future, will enable the products to be put on the market in the first half of 2023. The Director of API pointed out that this project is the fruit of the 2019 Cameroon Investment Forum, the theme of which was industrialisation through import-substitution. “Following this forum, there was renewed interest from investors in developing this sector. We have started to work together for a successful outcome today,” said Marthe Angéline Mindja.

But in addition to boosting aquaculture production, which currently stands at 10,000 tonnes a year and which the government wants to increase rapidly to 100,000 tonnes through various initiatives currently under way, the Fish&Co project will enable billionaire Albert Kouinche to further diversify his activities in the country.