(Business in Cameroon) - On December 12, 2017, André Mama Fouda, Cameroon’s minister of public health, has presented Cameroon government’s strategy to establish a universal health coverage in Yaoundé.

According to the minister, the government could spend CFA1,300 billion for the health coverage which comprises of a standard package of 185 medical interventions and 101 sub-services. The sectors in which the money will be spent are internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, stomatology, vaccination, etc.  

“We have conducted other preliminary studies such as Cameroonians’ contributive capacity. We can now set aside the remaining amount which must be mobilized by the government, in case the whole basic basket is implemented from the start so that government can suggest the measures to take to the president”, the minister said.

In February 2017, the national inter-sectoral technical committee in charge of the elaboration of this coverage indicated that the current facilities of Elections Cameroon (the body in charge of the elections) can be requested in order to better carry out the biometric registration operations. Retired civil servants’ contributions will be automatically withheld from their pension by financial and public treasury’s competent services. As for retired employees of the private sector, the contributions will be withheld by the National Social Insurance Fund (CNPS).

For workers in the informal and agricultural sectors, it will be deduced from the contribution for health insurance. Poor and disadvantaged will be affiliated by decentralized territorial units in accordance with a criteria and a methodology determined at the national level.

S.A