63% of northerners are poor - Report

A recent report by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on the 4th Cameroonian household survey (ECAM 4) revealed that poverty rose from about 7.1 million in 2007 to 8.1 million in 2014 to an estimated population of 22 million inhabitants.

The Grand North is no exception to this sad development.

According to the survey of ECAM 2, 3 and 4, the region of the Far North is leading with 74.3% of poor people, against 65.9 in 2007 and 56.3 in 2001.

The North followed suit with 50.1 in 2001; 63.7 in 2007 and 67, 9% in 2014. The Adamawa region is not spared, although it experienced a small decline in 2014. From 52.9% in 2007, the percentage of the fringe of the poor population decreased to 47.1% in 2014.

It was 48% in 2001 but in 2014, 63.1% of the population living in the Far North was poor.

These indicators are certainly a reflection of inequitable access to factors of production and to finance a suboptimal exploitation of local potential and insufficient evaluation of the role of the private sector in the fight against poverty.

Similarly, the agricultural sector is undermined by, among other climate hazards, including the resurgence of scourges, the low efficiency of production plots, the isolation of production areas, the aging of producers, the lack of organization of the sector in agricultural sectors and now insecurity linked to abuses of Boko Haram.

Economic growth of 5.6%, according to economists, has certainly contributed to the reduction of poverty, but the shortcomings in terms of redistribution, measured inequality in the consumption of goods and services, have had a negative impact on populations.

"For lack of appropriate targeting, the poor seem not to have benefited most from social protection measures," says the INS. This institution insists, arguing that the achievement of development goals in the ECSD and requires sustained growth, a better redistribution of the fruits of growth by better targeting the poor so that they can benefit from priority and massively social protection measures.

Vague impression around the programmes and proposals

In response to this rash poverty that paves Boko Haram, the Head of State had decided to launch an emergency plan for Far North development. Thus, he was entrusted to the Prime Minister Philemon Yang, on June 26, 2014, to develop a Priority Investment Programme (PIP) for the northern regions.

It aimed at improving the human development index in the northern regions to curb the ambitions related to poverty and idleness of the population and had four sub-programs.

These sub-programs were articulated around poverty reduction by creating jobs, education, promotion of women and the rule of law. But after months of waiting, the document was finally developed under the name of "Regional Development Program" with four components instead of "priority investment programs" which had initially been retained.

Construction and the design of water retaining structures were the first projects; development of irrigation schemes, pastoral and fish ponds for the second; achievement of socio-economic infrastructures for third and capacity building of stakeholders at the local level for the fourth, were the said programs.

In all, there were 94 projects. The total cost of the plan by Paul Biya was 78,860,218,694 FCFA. The distribution was made as follows: 17, 495 billion FCFA for Adamawa, 16, 489 billion FCFA for the North and 41.45 billion FCFA to the Far North.

In any case, the government's plan is far from the fund of 1,600 billion FCFA concocted by the elite of the northern regions and given to the government in September 2014.

An elite lamented that "Out of the 16 indicators of poverty IDI scale, Far North region is classified as the poorest in the country, followed by North and Adamawa. Out of the ten regions, the three regions are the only ones to show an aggravating trend of poverty, thus a negative development on the IDH scale. The other seven regions are experiencing a positive development on the IDH scale."