You Need to be Mad to Start a Language Service Company in Cameroon
The State, pop culture and reality have proffered entrepreneurship as the ideal solution to unemployment in Cameroon. Hence, seduced by the pitch, many youths have ventured into entrepreneurship, setting up shop in all economic sectors: primary, secondary and tertiary. In fact, some youths have charged into provision of language services, creating language service companies. However, news from the frontlines suggest it takes madness to start — and run — such a company in Cameroon given how challenges abound.
News from the frontlines
Since 2008, Cameroon has always featured in the lower rungs of the World Bank's Doing Business rankings. Its most unimpressive showing being in 2009 when it ranked 171st out of 190 economies and its most impressive coming in 2020 when it ranked 167th. These rankings mean the country is generally a challenging place to do business for "...small and medium-sized companies..."[1] On the periphery of these rankings and realisation stands the question of knowing whether Language Service Companies (LSCs) are SMEs? The answer lies in Law No. 2010/001 of 13 April 2010 on the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Cameroon (the "Law") that defines SMEs.
Are LSCs SMEs?
Section 2 of the Law states that SMEs refer to three types of enterprises: i) Very Small Enterprises (VSE), ii) Small Enterprises (SE) and iii) Medium Enterprises (ME). The first type has no more than five employees and generates an annual turnover, excluding taxes, of 15 million CFA Francs while the second type employs between 6 to 20 people and generates an annual turnover, excluding taxes, of 15 to 100 million CFA Francs. The third type employs between 21 and 100 people and generates an annual turnover, excluding taxes, of between 100 million and 01 billion CFA Francs. Absent scientific studies and reliable statistics on the Cameroon language service industry, only insider assessments and informed assumptions can attest to the size – and consequently the position in the hierarchy of enterprises – of the average Cameroon LSC. A cursory glance across the language service market – as it exists in Cameroon translation hubs such as Yaounde and Douala – would suggest that the average Cameroon LSC is a VSE, and is as such exposed to the crushing challenges faced by tertiary sector SMEs.
Cameroon LSCs and the Challenges of Tertiary Sector SMEs
As service delivery entities, Cameroon LSCs operate in the tertiary sector. According to the 2019 edition of the General Enterprise Census, there are 171,052 companies in Cameroon's tertiary sector, which accounts for 84.2% of all companies. Although no specific figure relates directly to the local language service provision industry, it is safe to assume that this industry faces the same challenges as its sector peers. One such challenge is sustainability as LSCs "...are finding it difficult to sustain themselves. Indeed, they constitute the category of enterprises which records the greatest number of closures or bankruptcies between the creation and the third year..."[2] This rather disheartening reality is only part of the picture as other challenges such as management, talent, technology and unfair competition exist and affect LSCs in varying degrees.
Management
Quite often this challenge starts with the simplistic assumption that running a language service business is just a four-part process: receive a task from a client, translate, deliver and get paid. This assumption often does not take into consideration one crucial factor: a language service company is a business like any other and as such must comply with rules that govern businesses. Implicit reference here is being made to incorporation, taxation, marketing, communication, human resource management, technology deployment and staff welfare among others. This simplistic approach dangerously overlooks the fact that every company manager – even language service business owners – in Cameroon must first and foremostly be a great business administrator with a cross-cutting skillset. Being a translator does not mean having a congenital aptitude to run a language service company. This is something the average LSC owner learns late, painfully and sometimes at the expense of their company's buoyancy.
Talent availability-recruitment-retention
In the 80s, the lone school for training translators/interpreters in Cameroon was the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters. Today, there are at least ten university-grade translation/interpretation programmes sprinkled across the country. The quantitative increase in training programmes has unfortunately not translated into an equal increase in talent availability. Top talent is still scarce, transforming talent sourcing into an extraordinarily tedious exercise for LSCs who must sometimes deploy advanced headhunting techniques. When LSCs eventually find such talents, they must not only perform the feat of bringing these talents up to speed in record time but also in retaining them in this talent-intensive sector. This is a huge ask for companies that are not easy to keep afloat talk less of scale. This explains why the doors of LSCs are like the doors of saloons in cowboy movies: they are always swinging as talent waddle in — as rough diamonds — and strut out — as more polished gems. This is a vicious cycle.
Inadequate technology to compete internationally
The international market accounts for a huge portion of the business activity of local LSCs. To operate and compete internationally, LSCs need reliable, high-speed internet as well as constant power supply; otherwise, they incur higher running costs to secure multiple sources of stable internet and backup power alternatives like generators, solar panels and batteries, UPS and stabilizers. All these add to the cost of running LSCs and high operating costs make them less able to compete internationally. As the language service industry worldwide further intersects with cloud computing tools and AI solutions, the inability of local LSCs to access stable and high-speed internet is another drawback to their survival and growth. When the upsurge of machine translation and online interpreting technology are added to the mix then the existence of these SMEs is not only challenged but sometimes irredeemably undermined.
Unfair competition
Cameroon LSCs compete with both local and international entities. At the local level, they suffer unfair competition from several actors i.e. fellow LSCs that practise outrageously low prices, and LSCs that adopt below-the-belt practices such as misrepresenting the capacities of rival LSCs to gain unfair advantages. This form of unfair competition reaches new heights when it is perpetuated by translator/interpreter guild officials who have a mandate to defend the profession. Then you have the "letterhead language service businesses" that crawl out of their hide outs only when a contract is up for grabs and scurry back into hiding right after, never generating any other value whatsoever for society at large. Another aspect of unfair competition entails local LSCs constantly having to free themselves from the presumption of incompetence and non-native speakership even before they get to the starting block while other LSCs receive a head start as presumably native speaker-powered entities. Even where contracts cover their countries of operation, Cameroon LSCs are often knocked out of the race before the starting pistol is fired.
These challenges paint a rather dismal picture for LSCs and beg one question:
How do Cameroon LSCs survive?
These towering challenges have pushed many owners of LSCs to come up with several solutions. The most notable solution has been to pivot, to varying degrees. Some pivot a few degrees, adding other language-based services like language teaching to their service catalogue. Others pivot as much as 180 degrees, adding non-language-based services such as coaching and communication. Extreme pivoting could at some point raise the question of whether or not these companies are LSCs in the strict sense of the term. But as the language service industry continues to experience disruptions, there is a likelihood of more pivoting to come.
Conclusion
Amid the challenges, there could be a temptation to think starting a language service company is a waste of time — and Cameroon LSCs are just bankruptcies and insolvencies waiting. Far from it! Some studies[3] estimate the language service market at USD 76.78 billion in 2024, and USD 104.31 billion by 2029. This forecast means that there is great potential local LSCs can harness if relevant challenges are met. This piece is a reminder that entrepreneurship has always been a fit of madness. It is an appeal to Cameroon LSC owners to keep their heads up! They should not give up. They should pivot as necessary! They should do anything, everything except give up. They should not stop the madness because it is the only way forward!
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P.S.:
To these already impressive challenges it could be interesting to add the unique linguistic landscape in Cameroon. Home to over two hundred indigenous languages, Cameroon is a *de facto* and *de jure* multilingual country. Consequently, the average Cameroonian has unconsciously been desensitised to the importance of multilingualism, which is the bread and butter of LSCs. This de-exoticfication of multilingualism acts to constrict the internal market that would otherwise be huge and available to LSCs. Cameroon contrasts with officially-monolingual countries like the USA where translation & interpretation – i.e. the work of language service companies – are indispensable. Additionally, the official linguistic composition of Cameroon with a French-speaking majority and an English-speaking minority further lends itself to this challenge. In some quarters of the French-speaking majority there is still a reluctance to respect the law or the English-speaking minority by making content available in English. This too doesn't help widen the language service market available to local LSCs.
https://archive.doingbusiness.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/country/c/cameroon/CMR.pdf
https://www.minpmeesa.cm/site/inhoud/uploads/2022/06/p2022auk.pdf
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/language-services-market
