Economy Minister on January 27, 2017 in Yaounde, cautioned staff of his ministry on new guidelines for full-bodied economy

The portfolio of projects to be executed this year in Cameroon, going by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Louis Paul Motaze, is huge. The stakes are therefore high, owing to the precarious growth within the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC sub-region. At the national level, development challenges range from the Three-year Emergency Plan, the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper and the completion and start of first and second-generation life-changing projects. “We therefore have work,” the Minister Louis Paul Motaze told staff of his Ministry on January 27, 2017, while receiving New Year wishes with his Minister Delegate, Yaouba Abdoulaye.

He cited the Head of State’s “I do not want austerity measures,” statement, saying it was time for staff to accept mechanisms put in place to improve public spending. The transitional period might be harsh, but the resolve has been taken to ensure that giant projects on infrastructure, energy, health and education are executed. He invited staff to use the period to identify and ensure the maturation of overarching second-generation projects for execution. In what could best be described as a public lecture, Minister Motaze, urged staff to entice private investors so as to scale growth. He said it was inadmissible for a country like Cameroon, a land of plenty, to process only 15 per cent of its raw materials meanwhile others like Côte d’Ivoire were well advanced and projecting 50 per cent by 2020.

The tides must turn, with Regional and Divisional Delegates now expected to forward only wealth-creating and economy lever projects to hierarchy for funding. The Minister cautioned staff to desist from proposing junk and immature projects for sponsoring, saying that government will not go to the financial market to fund defective ventures. Cameroon’s debt situation as at December 2016, stood at 28.5 per cent of GDP, over FCFA 5,123billion, far less than the 70 per cent limit set by CEMAC.