At the end of his mission to Cameroon, the Director of the Sub-Saharan Africa department of the French Development Agency, Yves BOUDOT, was received by Prime Minister, Philemon Yang on 18 July 2013 at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Yves BOUDOT came along with Mrs. Elodie MONTEGAUD, Cameroon Regional Coordinator and Gilles CHAUSSE, Cameroon AFD Director, as well as Bruno GAIN, French ambassador to Cameroon. AFD Africa’s management is in Cameroon to assess projects and plan for the future.
At the end of the forty-minute audience, Yves BOUDOT told the press that the cooperation between AFD, backbone of the French cooperation, and Cameroon is rich and old, strengthened by the establishment of the debt relief and development contract C2D, already at its second phase.
C2D is a programme for the cancellation and reconversion of Cameroon’s foreign debt to support projects in priority sectors and contribute to poverty reduction.
After the first phase which raised CFAF 352 billion between 2006 and 2011, C2D entered its second phase for a five-year period that started since 1 July 2011. This second phase with limited funds of CFAF 214 billion, gives priority to agriculture and rural development, urban development and vocational training.
The first phase considered priority sectors such as basic education, health, agriculture and rural development, environment, urban and road infrastructure in addition to agricultural research, culture, as well as an additional component dedicated to steering and conducting audits and studies.
Yves BOUDOT was pleased that the results of this commitment can already be seen particularly in Douala and Yaounde, through the construction of urban roads. As a bank, ADF is moving away from the C2D framework and is providing loans to Government to carry out certain social projects.
The Prime Minister’s host said in line with this, that the Director of Africa-Paris, AFD Yaounde and the Minister of Water and Energy visited the Mefou water pumping station, co-financed by AFD and the European Investment Bank to improve drinking water supply to inhabitants of Yaoundé.
- the pumping station, AFD also met with AES SONEL, CAMWATER and ALUCAM officials with whom he discussed about funding. The feedback of these discussions was given to the Head of Government, namely the multi-ten-yearly partnership between the agency and the national electricity operator. Present in the electricity sector in 30 African countries, AFD is interested in bringing its experience to help the State of Cameroon and SONEL improve the country’s energy supply.
A long-standing partner, AFD is active in the agro-industrial sector, notably through SEMRY, SOCAPALM and HEVECAM. It also carries out activities with the private sector, banks and the Douala Port Authority.
While emphasizing the need to complete the projects started and which are experiencing some difficulties on the ground, AFD has numerous projects for the future, notably urban roads in Yaoundé and certain industrial growth poles such as Kribi.
Speaking of Kribi, the agency set up the new Kribi Regional Development Fund (FDRK) for funding preliminary drafts in a bid to help Government fund infrastructure projects such as railways in this region which according to the AFD Africa Director, “this region will soon witness an accelerated growth”.
The AFD delegation will leave Cameroon on 18 July 2013.
