(Business in Cameroon) - The sum provided by the Ministry of Economy to Cameroon’s townships to promote the implementation of “High Labour Intensity” development projects has continuously climbed since 2012. From 500 million FCFA that year, it has risen to 600 million FCFA in 2014. It later soared to over a billion FCFA on November 12 for the signing of the 3rd phase of the agreement between the Cameroonian government and five districts.
At the root of this growing push by the Cameroonian government for townships to do more HLI projects are the encouraging results from this programme which is aiming to have 20% of the country’s investment projects be based on the HLI model. According to the Ministry of Economy, selected communities have already trained 350 young people in various fields and created 1,200 jobs between 2012 and 2014, of which 300 were reserved for women.
Presented by the government as the model to emulate among the 14 townships that have already benefited from this programme, Sagmélima in the South of the country successfully reduced the incidence of a number of societal ills such as idle youth and gang activity by undertaking the maintenance work for rural roads and classroom construction under the HLI model. The outcome? For the 3rd phase of the partnership between the State and the districts, Sangmélima has come out with 575 million FCFA out of an overall amount of over one billion FCFA.