Only Japan has shown, so far with a contribution of FCFA 3 billion for the reconstruction of these two regions plagued by a security crisis since late 2016.
The closure of the first phase of the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction of the North-West and South-West Regions (PPRD), which focuses on recovery, is scheduled for the end of 2023. With eight months to go before the deadline, Cameroon is still hanging on the every word of many technical and financial partners who have made promises, especially since 2019, the year in which these two regions were declared economic disaster areas by presidential decree.
As far as countries friendly to Cameroon are concerned, except for the Japanese government which has released FCFA 3 billion, the others are slow to follow suit. Allusion made for example to France which promised 62 million euros or 40.669 billion CFA francs four years ago. To date, there is no information on the process of mobilising this money.
The authorities in charge of the project are waiting for their word to implement futher actions. “You mentioned the case of our strategic partner France. It had announced this financial support. So we are still waiting for it. We are not losing any hope. Especially with the achievements and development on the ground. I think we are waiting for it, including so many others who had also promised,” said Balungeli Confiance Ebune, chairman of the Pprd Steering Committee, on television on 10 April.
For a total budget of 154 billion CFA francs , the country has been able to collect to date, 13 billion CFA francs , 8.9 billion representing the share of the state, 1.2 billion as a contribution from the private sector, 3 billion from Japan and 400 million CFA francs of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Faced with the low mobilization of funds, which remains unexplained despite the commitments made by foreign partners, Cameroon recently undertook to contract a loan of 21.155 billion francs from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). However, the mobilisation of funds remains one of the major challenges of Amanjong Motuba Obase who replaced Paul Tasong as coordinator of the PPRD since November 2022.
