(Business in Cameroon) - During the last four years, the investment portfolio of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Cameroon has quadrupled, Racine Kane, the Resident Representative in Cameroon of this Pan African institution, confided to the government Quotidien. This was in Bertoua, in the East region of the country, at the end of a meeting aiming to assess the implementation of projects financed by the AfDB.
Indeed, highlighted Mr. Kane, the portfolio of this institution "amounts (currently) to more than a billion dollars, being more than FCfa 680 billion in terms of commitments and support". It is focused "mainly on infrastructure, notably transport and energy (...) We intervene also in the field of water supply and sanitation. We have, furthermore, projects in the agricultural sector, notably developing value chains", he continues.
According to Racine Kane, the partnership between Cameroon and the AfDB "is manifesting itself by increasing confidence of technical and financial partners in the implementation of the development programme in Cameroon. This has resulted in the graduation of Cameroon since June 2014, that means the country can access all AfDB fund windows".
Incidentally, cooperation between Cameroon and the AfDB has been clouded by some matters. It mainly concerns, confides Racine Kane, "the delayed start up of projects, but above all the late mobilisation of counterpart funds and procurement problems", in Cameroon. But, reassures the Resident Representative of the AfDB, "we are in contact with the government in the framework of a continuous dialogue to remove these difficulties. It is furthermore the reason why once every quarter we organise reviews to see the bottlenecks in implementation of the portfolio and to improve its performance".
Brice R. Mbodiam