Cameroon’s Diaspora Are Helping Local Businesses Back Home Flourish

Cameroon’s Diaspora Are Helping Local Businesses Back Home Flourish

Cameroon’s Diaspora Are Helping Local Businesses Back Home Flourish Cars and motorcycle taxis struggle through the deep potholes of the dusty road. Visiting Sandra Tembei’s company, Mellow Group, makes you forget that her carpentry workshop is located in Douala, Cameroon’s major economic metropolis and an important port on the African west coast. This is what it often looks like here.  “The roads are a disaster!” says 31-year-old Tembei, who stands with her arms crossed at the entrance to the workshop while men in dusty trousers carry a kitchen worktop behind her. The air smells of wood, glue and sweat.  Mellow Group manufactures furniture, advertising signs and fitted kitchens. In addition to the disastrous infrastructure, extremely slow bureaucracy and corruption make business life difficult. Above all, however, companies in Cameroon lack money for investment. Tembei says that loans are difficult to obtain, and those who do succeed in securing one are charged up to 30 percent interest. …