Economic crisis hits Azur, employees put on technical leave
By Eratus Ndueh
In his end-of-year message broadcast on December 31, 2023, President Paul Biya announced that the government would reduce the FCFA 640 billion fuel subsidy, meaning that the upcoming months will be hard for Cameroonians, especially businesses.
By February 2024 the price for a litre of fuel at the pump shall be 860 FCFA instead of 730 – this means an increment of 130FCFA. This situation will lead to more economic hardship.
Recently, Azur S.A. announced that they will place part of its employees on technical unemployment starting Monday, January 8, 2024.
Azur S.A. is a palm oil-based agri-food production company that produces soap, margarine, and vegetable oils. Its products are on sale in Cameroon and other countries in Central Africa.
According to an official statement from the company, the economic situation rocking Cameroon at the moment has pushed the company to drastically reduce its activities. The technical unemployment shall last for six months, but there was no clarification on how many employees would be affected and if they would resume work after the said six months.
For the staff concerned, the company reinitiated that they will be paid as specified according to Cameroonian law setting the compensation rates during the period of suspension of technical unemployment, the salary will take into account the basic salary increased by the seniority bonus.
Azur has set the ball rolling, pundits expect more hardship and similar scenarios in other institutions. With the gradual reduction of fuel subsidies, experts say by 2025, Cameroon will completely remove fuel subsidies due to pressure from the IMF, thereby plunging the country into more economic hardship.
