(Business in Cameroon) - Paul Biya, Cameroon’s president released a decree allowing the minister of economics, Louis Motaze, to sign a loan agreement of £61 million (around CFA40 billion) with the Moroccan bank for external commerce, BMCE Bank.

According to this presidential decree, the loan will help finance construction and rehabilitation works of infrastructures for the AFCON 2019 that Cameroon will host. This includes the restoration of Roumde-Adjia stadium (30,000 seats), the construction of its adjoining stadium and the construction of a four star hotel’s in Garoua.

This loan is the result of negotiations initiated in January 2016 between Cameroon’s authorities and a delegation of Moroccan investors led by Mohammed Agoumi, managing director of international operations at BMCE. The investors were received by the general secretary of the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh on January 21, 2016. At the time, they declared an investment project of up to CFA130 billion to help Cameroon implement its three-year emergency plan (2015-2017), to enhance growth and for the organization of Women's AFCON 2016 and AFCON 2019.

Sylvain Andzongo