Preparing for national and international cultural events will also be prioritised in the ministry’s FCFA 3.232 billion budget for 2012.

Digitalising the National Archives with the view of consolidating national heritage and easing access to it for posterity will constitute one of the priority activities of the Ministry of Culture in the 2012 fiscal year. Culture Minister, Ama Tutu Muna, made the disclosure Tuesday November 22 after defending the ministry’s 2012 budget of FCFA 3.232 billion before the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly.

Although the ministry’s annual budget has been on a steady decline in recent years (FCFA 5.252 billion in 2010, FCFA 3.296 billion in 2011 and FCFA 3.232 billion for 2012), Mrs Ama Tutu Muna sounded upbeat, promising to take the ministry forward in all its forms. “I am not discouraged by the budget. You can do great things gradually,” she told Cameroon Tribune.

“Digitalisation is a process. You start by getting the documents scanned. We did not need billions for the pilot project that is going on. And if we can finish this stage, maybe by the time we get to the second stage which is retrieving our archives, we would have had a new building,” she noted.

Besides rendering the National Archives digital, the Minister said they will try to make maximum use of the FCFA 850 million investment package to break new grounds in consolidating national heritage. “We will be preparing for major events such as the festival of arts and culture, the Pan-African festival coming up in 2013 and the opening of the National Museum, continuation of the rehabilitation of the National Achieves, Re-unification Monument and the collection of the catalogue for the inventory of our heritage, among others”. Culture, she stressed, is part and parcel of the Head of State’s 2035 growth vision which must be jealously preserved and promoted for the sustainable development and unity of Cameroon.