The grassfield project, GP-DERUDEP, closed from the portfolio of African Development Bank (ADB) in 2011 but is still very much on the agenda of the government of Cameroon and the ADB, pending the take off of phase II. The ADB is thus saluted for accepting to fund phase II and continue rolling back poverty and make Cameroon an emerging country.

That was the welcome message when the Chairman of the Steering Committee of GP-DERUDEP, Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique, set the tone for the 28th quarterly coordination workshop of ADB funded projects in Bamenda last October 10-12, 2012. It started with the General Manager of MIDENO, John B. Ndeh hailing the ADB for standing by the government of Cameroon to finance projects which directly impact on the lives of the population. He sounded off that GP-DERUDEP excelled in the implementation of phase I and emerged the best in ADB's chart of projects in Cameroon in 2010. It emerged from the workshop that phase I of the project which ran for six years rolled back poverty by 10 per cent in some 140 of the total 560 communities of the North West. Phase II is expected to feature a lot in the component of infrastructure.

The 28th ADB coordination workshop was crucial in sizing up the performance of respective ADB projects in Cameroon. The ADB Resident Representative, Racine Kane, took time off during the event to reveal that the ADB has FCFA 500 billion on its portfolio for essentially, infrastructural projects to link production and consumption areas of Cameroon in 2012. It emerged that ADB funded projects are meant to impact on the population with energy, water and roads as major beneficiary sectors.