The capital of this province is Buea and this town has a marked presence of the Germans, the palace of the German governor, Von Puttkammer. This is also the first political capital of Cameroon. The town was later on governed by the British after 1914, making it one of the major English speaking parts of the country. It is an Anglophone province and still has traits of the British lifestyle in the day to day activities as well as constructions of the people in this area. Limbe is another big industrial town in this province, a picturesque coastal town with several tourist attractions. Read more on Limbe>>>
The section of the country has enormous potentials for tourism and ecotourism. It issues out to the Atlantic Ocean making it have attractive sandy beaches; some developed as swimming and basking sites. This has also led to the creation of several hotels in the area. E.g. the ‘Seme New Beach’ at Idenao.
The proximity this region shares with Doula, enables it to easily benefit from services offered by the Douala International Airport and the Douala sea port. Such services, combined with the presence of protected areas like the Korup National Park, make this area an ideal tourist destination.
Besides tourism, this province is other rich economic potentials such as its vast agro industrial plantations, its fertile soils on which subsistence agriculture is practiced by the locals and above its riches in petroleum deposits that are being exploited at Limbe. There are large plantations of rubber, banana, cocoa, palm trees and tea that extend over several hectares. This is also an offshore petroleum refinery at Limbe, controlled by Sonara, transforming crude oil into several primary products that are exported out of the country.
There is also a university here at Buea and several colleges that were created several decades ago by missionaries. This accounts in part for the high literacy rate in this area. It also explains why this province attracts lots of migrants from within and out of the country who come to study. Besides the pull factor of education, several migrants here were attracted by the job opportunities at the plantations at Moyuka, Tiko and Tole.
This province also has a number of primary industries; most of them being branches of the CDC e.g. rubber and oil factories and the Tole tea factory.