Cameroon Earmarks $23.6 Million For Reconstruction Of 3 Regions Destroyed By War And Insurrection

The Cameroonian government has earmarked the sum of 15 billion FCFA (about 23.6 million US dollars) in its 2023 budget to be used in the initial financing of reconstruction works in three regions. These regions were devastated by the war against Boko Haram, which has been going on since 2013, and the Anglophone separatist insurrection that has been going on since 2016.

The three regions involved are the Far North, which has been hard hit by terrorism and the Northwest and Southwest, where there has been an Anglophone separatist insurrection.

In the 2023 finance law currently being examined in the National Assembly, the government has announced the creation of a Special Fund for the Financing and Reconstruction of Zones Economically Damaged in the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest Regions.

Besides the initial budgetary allocation in the general state budget for the 2023 fiscal year, these funds would “retrace the allocations in the state budget, the contributions by technical partners and financers, donations, and all other resources susceptible to be made available in conformity with the legislation in force,” the budget explanatory note seen by HumAngle states in part.

According to the provisions of the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, the reconstruction of the three regions mentioned would necessitate a global investment of 1,000 billion FCFA (about 1.5 billion US dollars) in the long term.

Besides development partners, the state counts on the support of the private sector for the mobilisation of this amount, especially as by Prime Ministerial decree of Sept. 2, 2019, the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest regions had been declared “economically damaged zones”, a statute which, according to the texts in force, permits the state to offer various incentives to enterprises wanting to operate in these zones.