Cameroon, one of the most likely natural resources-based economies in Africa rely on its natural resource exports for growth. With the fall in international oil prices in Cameroon in the late 1980's, timber resources emerged as one of the major sources of foreign earnings.Since then, statistics reveal that timber exports have grown in volume,constitutinglargely of unprocessed and semi-processed wood products, with little value-added. This study, therefore examines the impact of timber export on economic growth in Cameroon over 34 years (1980 to 2014 inclusive) using time series data from the Food and Agricultural Organization and World Development Indicators. Using the Johansen Cointegration and Error Correction Modelling, the results show that timber export have an insignificant effect on the economic growth of Cameroon in the short run and in the long run it has a significant positive effect. We therefore recommend the increased consumption of locally-manufactured wood products, limitation of imported manufactured wood products, as well as encouraging the establishment of locally-based wood processing industries.

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Recent year statistics have revealed the build-up of excess liquidity in Cameroonian commercial banks for more than two decades now. This has led to renewed interest in liquidity management, as it has implications on the financial performance of commercial banks. This paper is therefore designed to examine the impact of excess liquidity on the financial performance of commercial banks in Cameroon. Using Return on Assets (ROA) as proxy for the measurement of financial performance, secondary data from 1990 to 2016, with the application of the VAR technique, the findings reveals that excess liquidity and total liquid outflows affect ROA negatively. Gross domestic product, interest rate gap, total liquid inflows and previous year ROA had positive effects on ROA. Also from the empirical findings, there is an existing significant negative chain between excess liquidity, commercial bank performance and economic growth in Cameroon based on the Koyck Geometric lag reasoning. To address the negative vicious cycle chain, we therefore recommend guided minimum and maximum liquidity regulatory control and government effort geared towards encouraging moral suasions and special directive of investment by commercial banks in the agricultural, industrial and the educational sectors in Cameroon. Also, commercial banks should set maturity mismatch limits appropriate to the size of excess liquidity observed in each bank. Attempt to reverse the chain is part of the assurance to Cameroon emergence by 2035.

Borrowing is the main stream through which small and medium size enterprises obtain funds for investment in Cameroon, and interest rate is a key determinant of how much funds these firms can acquire. It is against this backdrop that this study investigates the effects of lending relationship on the interest rate of commercial banks. Specifically, this study examines the effects of lending relationship factors like duration, pre-existence and trust and firm characteristics such as age, size, incorporation form and the gender of bank borrowers on the lending interest rates of commercial banks. A total of 119 questionnaires were administered to 9 commercial banks and their borrowers in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon and the ordered logistic regression method was employed as the analytical technique. Findings showed that trust in a relationship, preexisting relationship, firm size and incorporation form and gender of bank borrower significantly affect lending interest rate while duration of the relationship and firm age had insignificant effects. It was recommended that commercial banks should consider using relational social control measures. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature in that though the concepts/topic may be well represented in conference proceedings and reports it has not moved to a formal publications like the journals, hence this research study represent a way in which the topic will be moved into a formal publication.

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