Petroleum Products Price Fluctuations and Economic Growth in Cameroon

Commodity exports have over the years been the main source of foreign exchange earnings to most developing countries. This is especially the case with crude oil producing countries such as Cameroon since the discovery of oil in the late 1970s. However, as evident in the economic crises era of the mid 1980s, this exposes the commodity dependent country to heavy external shocks such as price fluctuations which affect the level of growth of the country. It is in this light that this study was conducted to examine the effect of petroleum products (crude oil) price fluctuations on the economic growth of Cameroon. Secondary data from1980 to 2013 were used to estimate the coefficients of the ordinary least square technique used to analyse the dependency between the dependent and independent variables of the phenomenon. The results obtained reveal that petroleum product prices have a positive significant effect on the economic growth of Cameroon, while the volume of trade to GDP (openness) and real interest rate have a negative significant effect on the economic growth of the country. Human factors (demand and supply imbalances, and interest rates) and natural factors (geographical location and resource endowment) are the principal causes of variations in the prices of petroleum products among different regions. From these, it is suggested that for Cameroon to benefit from the global trade process by opening up to the rest of the world, the revenue generated from crude oil exploitation should be re-directed towards investment in both human and physical capital so as to enhance the productive capacity of the nation, especially in the manufacturing and transport sectors

The Socioeconomic Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa

This study is motivated by the conviction that pandemic diseases entail huge human and economic costs. It is in this light that this study was designed to explore the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 in Africa in order to provide sound policy recommendations which can aid in abating the spread of the disease which is crucial for achieving desirable sustainable economic development. We found that besides the loss of human lives, the COVID-19 pandemic can have enormous short and long-run negative impacts on economic growth through various channels including, education, employment, industrial production, as well as the tourism and agricultural sectors. Also, the study revealed that although Africa has recorded the least number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, the continent remains the worst affected with a fatality rate of over 23%. Consequently, in the short-run, African governments should step-up their community screening/testing capacities and ensure the respect of basic hygiene rules.  Equally, African governments should rethink their health, educational and industrial policies in order to incorporate modern methods which make great use of digital technologies. Thus, they should increase investments in the health, educational and industrial sectors in order to render their economies more resilient to potential shocks in the long-run

Is mother nature responsible for Africa's predicaments? Pathways to breaking the chains of the resource curse through the lens of good governance, digitalisation and energy transition

As regards the question whether natural resource affluence is a benediction or curse to sustainable development, the jury's verdict is still awaited. While we impatiently await the jury's verdict, this study provides empirical evidence that Mother Nature is responsible for Africa's predicaments with regard to economic development and environmental sustainability. Specifically, the system GMM estimates from 37 African economies reveal that: (i) natural resource affluence inhibits economic development, (ii) resource rents exacerbates carbon emissions thereby impeding environmental sustainability (iii) natural resource rents interacts with governance to produce negative synergy effects on economic growth and environmental pollution, (iv) resource rents interacts with ICT to produce respective positive net effects and negative synergy effects on economic growth and pollution emissions, (v) while non-renewable energy consumption inhibits economic growth and exacerbates pollution emissions, renewable energy consumption promotes environmental protection, (vi) we provide evidence of the U-shaped and inverted N-shaped EKC for natural resources, while also validating the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis relating to the nexus between per capita GDP and pollution emissions. Contingent on these findings, African countries can break the chains of the resource curse by designing sound and complementary policies upon attainment of the established thresholds by the policy modulating variables. Equally, various governments should strengthen governance quality and encourage digitalisation of the resource sector. Furthermore, African governments should propel the energy transition process by increasing investments in alternative clean energy sources in order to catalyse the attainment of the continent's Agenda 2063