Challenges Faced by Minority Shareholders in Commercial Companies in Cameroon: A Legal Analysis

Abstract

The protection of minority shareholders in Cameroon is an ancient weakness recognized of plaguing the Cameroon commercial scene from the existence of the concept itself. The situation under English law was regulated by the received English law under the Common law regime. This application was by virtue of section 11 of the Southern Cameroon High Court Law (SCHCL) of 1955. What upheld in Nigeria was hitherto applied in the then West Cameroon since it was administered as an integral part of Nigeria. In French Cameroon, the received business laws from France were applicable. These laws were relevant within the territory until later appealed with the coming of the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Laws in Africa known by its French acronym OHADA. Those earlier laws accorded very little attention to protection of the minority shareholders in commercial companies. That was due to slow commercial development at that moment. The ensuing results of this research reveals that, the raison d’être of low performance of some companies in Cameroon, is due to the fact that, there has been inadequate measures as well as ineffective Implementation of the laws regulating the protection of minority shareholders owing to the fact that there exist several challenges and difficulties in the Implementation of these laws. The challenges faced by the minority have worsened because even the protection provided by the laws is difficult to implement and at times very expensive to undertake, reducing the shareholders’ proprietary rights. In all these, this paper has proffered recommendations that ameliorate the conditions of minority shareholders in commercial companies if taken into consideration.