ADB proposes a new five-year plan

The African Development Bank (ADB) has revised its strategy for Cameroon for 2015-2020.

This new approach of cooperation between the Pan-African institution and Cameroon has two pillars. The first pillar aims to develop rural infrastructure and transport to promote value chains of agro-pastoral and fisheries sectors.

While strengthening the competitiveness of non-extractive tradable goods and regional integration (CEMAC / ECCAS and to Nigeria), this pillar is to strengthen and leverage the impact of previous interventions of the Bank.

The second pillar aims to strengthen governance, including areas of transport and energy which concentrates more on structuring investments of the government, and which are also areas of concentration of the Bank's interventions.

This will be through targeted reforms, support and address the shortcomings of the regulatory framework that will enable the public sector expenditure to be more efficient and to ensure the sustainability of investments.

Furthermore, sources revealed that this pillar will help to strengthen trust and budgetary aspects of public spending (procurement, financial information systems, and programs maturation). The Bank will contribute to the upgrading of the national procurement system so that national procedures apply for calls to national competitive bidding (NCB) as part of operations financed by the Bank.

Over $ 608 million of transactions

According to statistics released by the institution in late May 2015, the ADB has 19 operations (11 domestic operations, 4 regional and 4 private sector) totaling approximately $ 608.8 million dollars (around FCFA 364.2 billion), with overall disbursement rate of 46.07%, with an average age of 4 years and a percentage of 5.8% risky projects. The bank considers the overall performance of the portfolio in Cameroon satisfactory in 2014 with an average rating of 2.36 on a scale of 3 (against 2.30 in 2013 and 2.15 in 2012 and 2.06 in 2011).

"The proposed strategy is consistent with government priorities defined in the strategy paper for growth and jobs (2010-20 ECSD)," responded the ADB in a document reached our editorial. The pan-African institution adds that "It contributes to the implementation of the 2013-22 year strategy of the Bank Group, including its policies on infrastructure development, regional economic integration, private sector development and promoting good governance. The strategy of the Bank will support the regional integration strategy for Central Africa (RISP 2011-15)."

However, the portfolio experiencing difficulties for which the Bank intends to implement a portfolio improvement action plan which should further enhance the execution and performance of operations.