For a shared, durable growth

The visit of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund to Cameroon has come and gone. As a matter of fact, the 72-hour stay in Cameroon of Mrs. Christine Lagarde was enriching both to the country and the entire central African sub region in all ramifications.

Without being a master-servant or donor-beneficiary gathering, the visit gave both parties the opportunity to draw lessons on what has been done so far, with regard to accelerating sustainable development to meet set goals. It was also a moment to jointly look at ways of making tomorrow better than today especially against a backdrop of falling oil prices on which the country and sub region hugely rely to drive their economies.

Mrs Lagarde gave Cameroon a pat on the back for what she termed the resilience of the country’s economy to global economic shocks. Coming a few days after the Head of State saluted the same resilience during the December 31, 2015 address to the nation, is heart-soothing and hope-raising. The country has been able to sustain a growth rate (about six per cent in 2015) far above the sub regional average (about 2 per cent).

The positive economic outlook certainly calls for celebration. It is not forbidden anyway to rejoice especially at the time a country stays afloat in the face of dwindling global performance. More so, even when appreciated by someone of Mrs. Lagarde’s standing.

But the celebration should not veil the fact that so much growth path is still to be covered. Like other economic analysts have said and continue to say,  Mrs. Lagarde observed that the growth the country records thanks to the resilience should be inclusive (shared) and sustainable. It should trickle down to the masses. And for this to be reality, equal opportunities must be given to all economic participants with benefits incurred by every section of society.

To say the least, the six per cent average growth rate that Cameroon has is good but largely insufficient to power the economy to emergence. Being a middle-income economy indispensably requires a double-digit growth rate and sustaining it for decades. Cameroon is still far from it but the target is attainable with a bit of foresightedness, hard work and the pursuant of national interest by all and sundry.

Mrs Lagarde did not leave Cameroon alone to reflect on how growth challenges could be surmounted. Like was the case during her toast at the State House, the IMF Managing Director also told development stakeholders that the country may consider reviewing her development policies. Policies are made by man and can only be adjusted by man where they have failed or not produced required results.

She put a special finger on infrastructure projects that are susceptible to causing a turnaround in the socio-economic life of the people. It is good to spread development projects across the country but better to select those that can rapidly and directly impact the living conditions of the people. Embracing everything at the same time just because people need to be seen that the State is for them and abandoning the projects thereafter for want of financing is not only disturbing but image-bashing. A shift in attitude and approach to development is therefore imperative here. Scarce resources should be judiciously used for life-changing projects.

While continually working on improving good governance and the investment climate - absolutely needed to attract viable and sustainable investors, especially direct foreign investors - giant strides are also needed to get direct foreign investors on board. What they want and how they want things done could open the path for better policy adoption. Above all, it pays to diversify the economy so that when one sector is dwindling, others can stand. Agriculture, mining, livestock and others are still to be given a chance to power the economy.