(Business in Cameroon) - The Coordinator of the Rumpi Area Participatory Development Project in the South West Region, Besong Ntui Ogork, has said that some 30 billion CFA francs is needed for the second phase of the project.

He said more emphasis will be placed on developing agricultural infrastructure which will consume 60 per cent of the budget.  As per the pre-project document presented to steering committee members recently, some 500 km of rural roads will be constructed and rehabilitated while rural water schemes, rural markets and electrification of more rural communities will be carried out. The project would also provide technical support and capacity building to farmers.

The steering committee members also adopted amongst other resolutions the 2014 work plan of the project and the budget that stands at FCFA 2, 355, 99 billion.

The Steering Committee chair, Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai, pointed out that the second phase of the project will be most appropriate and timely especially with the construction of the major road corridors in the region that have always been a breadbasket of Cameroon. He said the success of phase I which stands at 93.5 per cent physical realisation is an indication that the project has impacted households in the region.

It emerged from the steering committee meeting that before the formulation of the project, the rate of poverty in the region in early 2000 was 145,000 below the national average of 148,000 going by the per capita income. In April 2012 when an assessment of the project was made, the per capita income witnessed an upsurge of between 366,000 to 700,000 in some places giving a general average of 160,000.

Mr. Ogork however indicated that one phase or even two phases of a project cannot completely eradicate poverty in the region but the hope is that the phase II will take the rate higher and the livelihoods of Cameroonians improved.

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