Based on a May 6, 2010 agreement between the two sides, the programme is expected to provide solutions to major problems such as poor access to basic services, low incomes, financing of income-generation micro-projects, construction of rural roads and schools, improvement of potable water schemes and public health facilities, etc. Funded by the European Union and intended to last four years, the programme covers 15 North West communities in the Momo, Donga Mantung and Menchum Divisions and Akwaya Subdivision of the South West Region.
In effect, the launching event was a rare moment with speeches, song and dance to salute international cooperation. It was time for the programme to receive the blessings of the Cameron government and the EU with Minister Louis Paul Motaze commissioning its management team. He commended the European Union for standing by government’s development efforts in the North West with the development of the access road to Lake Nyos and the reinforcement of the lake’s natural dam. It also emerged from the event that the project for tarring the 258 km-long Ring Road is on course with the Ndop-Kumbo stretch costing FCFA 22.5 billion underway. Another agreement between government and the African Development Bank last October is expected to reinforce electricity transmission and distribution networks to cover eight regions, including the North West. The Minister further said the expansion and modernization of the national railway network will involve the North West Region with Bafoussam-Bamenda-Wum and the Bamenda-Jakiri stretches envisaged in the short term and later, the Foumban-Jakiri-Nkambe stretch.
In all, Minister Louis Paul Motaze announced that the North West Region will receive 38 per cent of overall projects in the programme that covers the East, Far North and North West Regions. Credited for funding the programme, the Head of the EU in Cameroon, Raul Mateus Paula said the FCFA 16.7 billion amount is a gift to Cameroon of which FCFA 6.4 billion is allocated to the North West Region. Emphasis, he said is laid on the development of remote areas that have not previously benefited from development assistance. The EU, Raul Mateus Paula said, is the leading contributor of development aid to Cameroon. The Mayor of Mbengwi Council, Tarh Mbah George expressed hope that the development assistance will rekindle hope in people who have suffered in poverty for little too long. North West Governor, Abakar Ahamat and elite like Ministers Nji Paul Atanga, Ama Tutu Muna, Ngafeeson Emmanuel, Fuh Calistus Gentry and the Director of Cabinet in the Prime Minister’s Office, Paul Ghogomu were around to cheer the launch of the programme.
