“We Want To Be The Electricity Hub Of The Sub-region”

What has been Cameroon’s participation at these annual meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF?
This year’s annual meetings are taking place when the twin institutions are celebrating 80 years of operation. In 1944, it was mostly about reconstruction before talking about development. Today, we are in a context where development is critical; development taking into consideration new challenges such as climate change, gender inclusion and so on and so forth. This is the context in which Cameroon is taking part at this important gathering bringing together a lot of financial pundits to discuss about the state of the economy and to project the future of our nations. We are proud to say that with regards to our cooperation with the World Bank Group, we have a portfolio of four billion US dollars. This is contributing to supporting the financing of infrastructure, health and education, social safety and different reforms that are helping Cameroon to progress towards achieving its development goals. 

What were the main discussions during the meeting? 
We had bilateral discussions with the World Bank Group, as well as with the IMF to see how we can continue in our development process and to also talk about the completion of the last review of our programme done recently in Yaounde by the joint mission; World Bank, IMF and the African Development Bank. We are proud to say that those pending elements are close to being delivered and we also want to say that with regards to our discussions with IFC from the World Bank Group, with regards to their contribution to financing our private sector, we had great discussions and good conclusions. The world is going through a turbulent period. Growth will remain sluggish despite the fact that inflation is expected to reach 3.5 per cent next year, which is good. Without inclusive growth, we will not be able to create jobs, eradicate poverty and promote the development we are looking for. This is the reason why the tools being necessary to be used in promoting our development are clearly stated. We should continue to invest in growth. We should build skills as well as digital literacy. We are very proud to see that Cameroon has a lot of potentials and natural resources, but particularly human capital. We should therefore work with our partner’s in a supportive and collaborative manner to see how we can bring prosperity to this population living in rural areas, connecting this people we are also willing to be part of the mainstream economy and see that Cameroon, as it is in the Vision 2035 of His Excellency President Paul Biya becomes an emerging country. 

What are some of the recommendations at the end of these discussions? 
We proposed the consolidation of policies, especially in terms of fiscal consolidation, as well as all the reforms that are critical to be supported by our partners to unleash the natural potential available in Cameroon, such that we should be playing an important role both for Cameroon and the sub-region. These are some of the areas in terms of macroeconomic policies we have been able to talk about. We also covered some of the issues with respect to our sub-region CEMAC to see that macroeconomic stabilit...