Number of poor people in Cameroon increased by one million in 7 years

The number of poor people in Cameroon increased by 14% between 2007 and 2014, from around 7.1 million people to 8.1 million, the results of the 4th Cameroonian household survey (ECAM 4) published by the National Statistics Institute (INS) revealed.

However, says the INS in Ecam 4, the poverty index, which indicates the overall poverty level in the country has been falling since 1996. Sources disclosed that it increased from 53% this year, to 40.2% in 2001; eventually reaching 39.9% in 2007 and 37.5% in 2014.

This decrease is, however, insufficient to reduce the number of poor people in the country because, according to the INS, "it is rather a poverty incidence of less than 32% which seemed to reverse the trend."

Overall, over the period 2007-2014 concerned by ECAM 4, the level of poverty in Cameroon has declined by 2.4 percentage points. The report of ECAM 4 stated that "this moderate decline is below the rate recommended in the Strategy Paper for Growth and Employment (ECSD) and does not achieve the objective of halving poverty by 2015 following the agenda of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)."

However, "in view of the favourable outlook for economic growth and supported by public policies being implemented or contemplated," sources said, "the achievement of the goal of 28.7% incidence of poverty in 2020 set in the ECSD is still possible."

"Provided that the real rate of GDP growth is significantly above 7% annually," added the INS.

The growth rate will not reach 7% in 2015 but because it has already been projected at 6%, at most, in 2016.