The Head of European Union Delegation to Cameroon, Hans-Peter Schadek held talks with Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey during a courtesy visit last week.

The new Head of European Union Delegation to Cameroon, Hans-Peter Schadek has paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey. Both officials held in-camera talks at the Ministry of Finance building, Thursday December 14, 2017.

After the audience, Ambassador Hans-Peter Schadek told reporters he was glad to have met the Minister. “It was first of all a courtesy call. It was an opportunity to make acquaintance and to exchange on different issues since we are in a close working relationship with his ministry,” Hans-Peter Schadek said, detailing reasons for his visit to the finance ministry.

Going by the diplomat, they discussed issues of public finance management and macro-economic issues. “We also have quite an important file now with the new budget support programme that has been signed some two weeks ago. We are working on that and look forward to proceed with the first disbursement in the coming week,” he announced.

It should be recalled in 2016, the government of Cameroon expressed the wish to move from project approach to budget support approach as the preferred method of financing development. Since then, negotiations for the funding through the budget support approach have been initiated in the form of grants with the European Union and loans with other technical partners.

On Thursday November 9, 2017, the European Union accorded to Cameroon a grant of 96 million euro, approximately FCFA 63 billion. The funds were destined to support reforms initiated by the government, particularly to meet the challenges of boosting agricultural productivity and the effectiveness of public action in the area of public finances.