Financing Dev’t Projects: Capitalising On Deposit Fund

C ameroonians are certainly waiting, with legitimate anxiety, to see what will change as concerns in­ vestments, especially in growth-induced sectors in the short, medium and long terms, following an interna­ tional conference which held in Yaounde last week on how to mobilise savings to finance the national economy. The conclave, organised by Cameroon’s Deposit and Consignment Fund, brought together African and European officials who deliberated on the theme, “National savings for the financing of the economy: The role of the Deposits and Consignments Fund.” It was an experience-sharing forum for better field results. What makes the expectations of the population even hi­ gher is the two-fold goal of the get together – Sharing best practices on how well the deposits and consignments fund can bolster sustainable growth and launching a new savings scheme within Cameroon’s Deposit Fund to channel part of the country’s diaspora savings into funding investments in the pro­ ductive sectors of the economy. The objective is to design a re­ liable project that assures the diaspora of safe, transparent, and accurate investment platforms for their funds while ensuring a conducive en­ vironment for sustainable projects. Assurances from Fi­ nance Minister that government is building a sustainable framework that simultaneously enhances production and protects savers, ensures the security of mobilized resources, stabilizes the financial system, and improves the efficiency of financing the economy, suggest some­ thing is in the offing. More so as the vision is to foster viable investments in infrastructure; from agriculture and industry to the digital economy and across all sectors driving growth, competitiveness and innovation. From the hindsight, this sounds good. Materialising the lofty dream is even better. Even so as the country has not been doing so well in terms of practical investments in sectors that are capable of sustaining the economy and taking it to emergence. The concerns of keen citizens, logical at least, certainly stem from incessant difficulties the country is said to be facing in accessing sustainable financing or even better utilising those sought for growth-induced projects. There is no gainsaying that providing adequate funding for growth projects is usually an uphill task for most re­ gimes, harder even for those with struggling econo­ mies. It would therefore be productive for government to take advantage of the National Deposit and Consignment Fund, that is expanding its scope for manoeuvre in terms of mobilising resources, to spearhead meaningful development for the present and future generations. The Fund’s role as a public bank to safely hold “untapped” or idle private and public funds to finance the national economy and public policies must be made to yield desired fruits. Government absolutely needs to define the priorities for resources from the Fund to be used in financing the economy so that its outlined mission of receiving, safeguarding, and managing public and private funds and assets in accordance with applicable laws and regulations can be purposefully fulfilled. This is what will develop the economy and benefit the common man. Leaving the already held resources to maybe idle...