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The 2018 festive season has come and gone and many businessmen in Yaounde would spend the first week of 2019, counting the gains and losses they made during the period. On Wednesday January 2, one could find many businessmen and petit traders at the Mfoundi Market in Yaounde either just chatting with neighbours or going through sales records. The apparently less organised, were either dozing off or emptying beer bottles in obvious finalisation of the boozing they engaged in as they celebrated the New Year on January 1.

The 2018 festive season has come and gone and many businessmen in Yaounde would spend the first week of 2019, counting the gains and losses they made during the period. On Wednesday January 2, one could find many businessmen and petit traders at the Mfoundi Market in Yaounde either just chatting with neighbours or going through sales records. The apparently less organised, were either dozing off or emptying beer bottles in obvious finalisation of the boozing they engaged in as they celebrated the New Year on January 1.“What is certain is that most of us made more money during the month of December than we did in the other months of the year, even if sales might not have been as great as they were during the same period last year or in 2017,” Ngono Christelle said as she rearranged her smoked fish to make it look more appealing to customers. “I can’t give you the exact figures of the profits I made in December thanks to festivities carried out during this period, but I was able to put smileson my children’s faces,” she said.The food market was out right void of its usual hustle and bustle. So too was theMvog-Atangana Mballa and Mvog-Mbi food markets. Bilingue Eric Marius who runs a Cold Store in the Mvog-Mbi market equally attested that he made more money during the festive period. “Even people who hardly afford fish or meat for the family everyday usually make an effort to have some during end-of-year feasts, especially Christmas and New Year. So we always try to make as much profit as we can, not by extorting customers anyway,” he noted.

Besides vendors of consumables, textiles and clothing shops equally cashed in on the end-of-year festive period, though not every enterprise was satisfied. For instance, Siewe Patrick, a Commercial Assistantat Super Bazar, one of the majorl uxury clothing shops in Yaounde lamented that they did not reach half of their sales target. He said if one compared their December sales for the past ten years, this year would emerge at the bottom of the rating. “We did not witness the expected boom this year even though we carried out promotional sales. We do not target the man on the street and as such,when circumstances do not favour our target customers, we are bound to witness a slum in our business,” he said.

_{Source :Cameroon Tribune / By Mbom 03 Janv. 2019}