Douala: Africa’s second most expensive city

The Cameroon economic capital is also ranked 34^th on earth

By Francise N. Njila

Staff Writer, Prince Report.

Cameroon economic capital of Douala, has been raked the second most expensive city to live in Africa and also witnessed a one-place to become the 34^th most expensive city on earth.

The ranking issued recently by a Canadian group, Mercer Human Resources Consulting, ranked Lagos in Nigeria as the most expensive city on the continent and the 31^st most costly place to dwell on earth. The Mercer publication compares the cost of life in 144 cities on the planet based on the cost of 300 products and services from lodging, transportation, food and leisure.

Moscow in Russia was place first for the third consecutive year. Tokyo, London, Oslo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Geneva, Zurich and Milan followed respectively. Meanwhile, New York, the only American city appeared 22^nd among the top 50 most expensive cities in the world.

Douala residence expressed little surprise and expected the city to top the Charts, considering the persistently galloping costs of everything-from fuel via housing to food. “What can I really tell you. Just know that things a quite expensive over here than anywhere you can imagine” says Tchoutang Jean-Marie.

The survey, according to Mercer, is intended to guide multinational companies, diplomatic services, foreign missions and governments in the allocation of salaries and compensation allowances to protect the purchasing power of their employees serving abroad. Alan Shepherd, branch manager at the British Council in Douala, says he has had to heavily cut back on personal expenses after moving here from Caracas in Venezuela over a year ago.

“This is the first time I’ve been in Africa. So all I can say is that the actual cost of living in Douala surprised me. It was higher than I had thought it was going to be, to be honest.
If you take what we call an economic basket of goods, if you include in that supermarket prices, restaurant prices, things like taxes, then they’re all considerably high,” he said.