(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian government is actively seeking funding partners for its 4th General Population and Housing Census. For this edition, the budget is estimated at CFA64 billion and the government has already secured CFA42 billion, Alamine Ousmane Mey, the Minister of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development, said during a cabinet meeting on March 28 in Yaoundé.

The minister indicated that Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute instructed his Ministry to expedite the necessary financial arrangements for the census and efforts are underway to secure the remaining funds from technical and financial partners.

This 4th census will also include a general census of agriculture and livestock, consolidating the two operations to manage funding constraints. The preparatory activities for the census are complete, including technical documentation, staff training, and pilot census mapping. The process will continue with the recruitment and training of enumerators, followed by data collection and post-collection activities such as report generation and publication of results.

According to information reported by Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is supporting the government in advocacy and resource mobilization. Together with the Central Bureau of Census and Population Studies, they are focusing on training enumerators to prevent sexual abuse, especially towards women and girls in vulnerable communities. Other UN agencies are also assisting Cameroon in updating its socio-demographic and agro-pastoral data. This 4th census, initiated in 2015, aims to provide data essential for development planning and policy-making towards Cameroon's emergence. The timing of the census, initially planned for November and December 2023, remains uncertain. The last census was conducted in 2005, with results published in April 2010, estimating Cameroon's population at 20 million.