(Business in Cameroon) - FCfa 8 billion. This is the envelope that Canada will release over the next five years, within the framework of the Programme to Improve Surveillance of Extractive Industries in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa (Programme d’Amélioration de la Surveillance des Industries Extractives en Afrique francophone subsaharienne - PASIE), officially launched on 17 April in Mali. In addition to Mali, the other beneficiary African countries are Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Madagascar, we learned officially.

According to the initiators of this programme, “PASIE is a 5-year regional initiative which has as its goal to improve governance, transparency and accountability in the extractive industry in sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, in order to contribute to a better sustainable economic growth in the countries concerned".

The countries targeted are all lands rich in ores, but whose resources derived from the subsoil do not yet contribute effectively to the economic development of the said nations. In Cameroon, for example, country holding world class ore deposits, mining activity, still artisanal, to date only contributes 1% of GDP.

Gold, which is the most exploited ore until now, is subject to illicit trafficking. To the point where, according to official statistics, about 90% of national production, estimated at 100 tons, is generally sold in informal sectors.

BRM