(Business in Cameroon) - To revive its economy, which entered recession in 2020 (-2.6%) due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cameroonian government elaborated a three-year plan (2021-2023) amounting to XAF871.8 billion. Attached to the 2021 Finance law, the plan entitled "Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery Plan" aims to support the industries heavily impacted by the crisis and the segments that will allow a quick recovery of the productive sector.  

The document suggests import-substitution and national preference policies, to boost the local economic fabric’s resilience to external shocks and achieve the reference economic growth rate set out in the country's Vision 2035, namely 4.7% growth between 2020-2022, 7.7% between 2023-2025, and 9.3% between 2026-2030.

The three-year plan focuses on 80 actions grouped into four axes as follows: "support for the production and transformation of consumer products" (XAF96.4 billion), "support to companies’ cashflow" (XAF709.4  billion), "support to growth sectors" (XAF50 billion), and "support to companies’ competitiveness" (XAF21 billion).

To fund the program, the government plans to rely on foreign financial partners but also its resources. The resources include part of the Special Covid-19 allocation fund created this year with a XAF150 budget (of which XAF50 billion is dedicated to the revival of the production of mass consumption products in the country). It also includes the residual incomes of closed projects (those incomes will be evaluated in coordination with the national sinking fund-CAA).  

The foreign resources to be used to fund the three-year plan include the proceeds of the funding agreements currently being negotiated with partners (like the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa- BADEA), the resources to be raised in the framework of the "Basket Fund" (to be set up with United Nations Development Programme-UNDP) as well as support from technical and financial partners (like the AfDB, the World Bank, and Afreximbank).

Aboudi Ottou