(Agence Ecofin) – The employment of foreigners, especially in key positions in national companies, is a delicate issue in many African countries. States are trying to apply an inclusive policy without unduly affecting their labor market, and to avoid social tensions like those of 2019 in South Africa.
Several companies continue to employ foreign labor in Cameroon without respecting the regulations enacted for this purpose, noted the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, in a press release published a year ago. A few days. ” Despite awareness campaigns, field checks and formal notices addressed to business leaders, they continue to employ an abundant workforce of foreign nationality on the fringes of the regulations in force.“, he says.
He invited the companies concerned to kindly comply with the law within 30 days of the publication of the press release. “After this period, the interministerial group responsible for regulating the workforce of foreign nationality will go down to all the offending companies identified, and sanction them in accordance with the regulations in force in the matter. » relayInvest in Cameroon.
This violation of the rules by employers alters the Cameroonian policy of promoting the nationalization of jobs. In June 2022, Minefop published a circular setting out the prerequisites for granting a work license to a foreign worker.
The text states, among other things, thatthe Minister should only grant a work visa to a worker of foreign nationality if it is proven that there are no competent Cameroonians in the position requested“or if the employer”proves that he has also hired a Cameroonian who assists the worker of foreign nationality for technology and skills transfer needs ».
This warning comes a few weeks after the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, for the same reason, challenged the appointment of an Ivorian national at the head of Atlantique assurances Cameroun IARDT.
« I have the honor to inform you that it was not possible for me to respond favorably to the request for approval from Mr. Yapo Raoul Charlemagne Raymond, as Managing Director of Atlantique assurances Cameroun IARDT, in the insofar as his file does not meet the requirements of the circular (…) of June 27, 2022 from the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, in particular the employment contract referred to and proof of the non-existence of competent Cameroonians for the position solicited“, he wrote on March 2 in a correspondence addressed to the chairman of the board of directors of this insurance company.