Cameroon plans $10 million cotton mill

Cameroon will start construction of a $10 million cotton mill next year in an effort to boost value-added exports, officials said. The Development Bank of Central African States and Societe Generale de Banque de Cameroun have agreed to raise 1 billion CFA francs - about 20 percent of the total cost of the project, the government said.
"At the moment, local processing of cotton is about 5 percent, with the remaining 95 percent exported. This is about raising processing to 40 percent at least and cutting raw exports," Martin Yankwa, an official at the Ministry of Industry, told reporters on Tuesday. The general manager of the project, Robert Kemajou, told Reuters on Wednesday that construction would start in mid-2012 in the industrial district of Douala, and the total cost would be at least 5 billion CFA francs ($10.4 million).