Reconstruction of the Anglophone Crisis Region: Sad Results After 18 Months
Reconstruction of the Anglophone Crisis Region: Sad Results After 18 Months
During a press conference held on July 8 in Yaoundé, Paul Tasong (photo), the coordinator of the Presidential Plan for the reconstruction of the North-West and South-West regions (PPRD), devastated by the socio-political crisis which has been raging there since the end of 2016, announced that in 18 months of activities, 11.5 billion FCFA have been mobilized by Cameroon out of an overall budget of 154 billion FCFA. That is a mobilization rate of 7.4%.
In detail, explained Mr. T asong, the State mobilized 75% of the 11.5 billion. The private sector contributed 1.2 billion; the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) 400 million FCFA; and Japan 1.5 billion FCFA.
“We continue to wait for other partners and other donors to come forward. The State is currently negotiating a financing of 900 million FCFA with Japan which should be concluded by the end of the year. During the same period, the State hopes to release an amount of 10 billion FCFA itself. Funding of 20 billion is also in discussion with the Islamic Development Bank ,” said the member of the government.
During the 18 months of activities, he said, the State was able to rebuild, among other things, 15 schools, 18 water points, 12 health centers. To achieve this, the government has resorted to collaborations with civil society, traditional authorities, religious and 44 municipalities.“To rebuild and so that we do not come to destroy after the works, we opted for discretion and not triumphalism” , explained Paul Tasong.
Areas declared disaster areas in 2019 by the government because of the insecurity maintained by armed groups, the North-West and South-West regions benefited from a Presidential Reconstruction Plan for an initial amount of 89.682 billion FCFA, re-evaluated at 154 billion FCFA after updating. The PPRD, which will last two years, is a component of the National Development Program (PND), drawn up for a period of ten years.
In 2019, the Inter-Patronal Group produced a report. This revealed that ghost towns, insecurity, various types of destruction and the halting of public investment projects, due to three years of security crisis in the North-West and South-West, have led to significant shortfalls in turnover for companies.
“By focusing on 10 sectors of activity only, these losses are estimated at nearly 800 billion FCFA after three years. The distribution sector is the most affected, insecurity having made the bed of informal supply circuits, many of which are supplied by contraband products” , revealed Gicam.
