Category: Fragile states

A large part of Africa’s cotton production is carried out by small farmers in the Sahel. This region is characterized by great political instability and in part by the advance of Islamist forces. In the following interview with a senior employee of the Cameroonian cotton company Sodecoton, who wishes to remain unnamed, it becomes clear what an enormous contribution cotton production makes to the stabilization of societies in the Sahel, but also to supplying the population with food.

Can and should we still be active in Afghanistan outside of direct humanitarian aid? Or are all the hops and malt lost there anyway, or doesn’t every economic activity directly or indirectly support the Taliban? An interview with Bernd Leidner,

Cameroon is generally and rightly regarded as a poorly governed country. President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, leads the country autocratically, is in permanent conflict with part of the Anglophone population and is unable to lead the country, which is blessed with so many human and natural resources, into dynamic growth.
Celestin Guela, CEO of Afriland First Bank, explains in an interview how it was nevertheless possible to build what is now Cameroon’s largest and most successful bank from virtually nothing in this environment.