The bank’s visiting Managing Director held a working session with Economy and Finance Ministers on April 25, 2016.
The World Bank portfolio in Cameroon consists of 20 active projects, with transactions worth over 1.338 million US Dollars (about FCFA 7, 574 Billion), yet, there is concern over the rate at which funds for such projects are consumed. Information from the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development indicates that consumption of funding for World Bank-sponsored projects stood at 42 per cent as at March 15, 2016.
In 2014 Cameroon recieved 180 million US Dollars from the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, BIRD. Ever since, a dime has not been spent, information reveals. Sources also cite the project to develop the energy sector whose disbusrement stands at only 39.8 per cent four months to the end. The growth and competitiveness project that is now enjoying a one-year period of grace has seen funds disbursed at 51.10 per cent while the emergency project to fight flooding in the Far North Region falls below expectations, with only 5.14 per cent, of the project funds cashed.
The performance has however improved, notes the World Bank, but lying on the laurels will be working against the improvement of the living conditions of Cameroonians. The Managing Director and Chief Operation’s Officer of the World Bank Group, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, in a one-day working visit to Cameroon on April 25, 2016, amongst other things, cautioned government officials on the need to refashion funding and project execution mechanisms to meet World Bank procedures. Sri Mulyani Indrawati held a joint working session with the Ministers of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development as well as Finance, Louis Paul Motaze and Alamine Ousmane Mey respectively, during which discussions centred on reforms in the areas of energy, transport, communication and ICTs, that are expected of government to achieve its development vision. The World Bank’s Managing Director thinks a reduction in the cost of transportation, with an improvement in quality, will open up competitiveness, creating wealth. The quality of human resources is critical for Cameroon to move forward, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said. She also stressed the need to improve spending, faciliate learning for students by reducing textbook costs as well as create an enabling environment for doing business. She however pledged her institution’s readiness to scale up support emphasising that the; “World Bank can support more, making sure that the growth and economic development in Cameroon are sustained and made more inclusive.”
Government has notwithstanding, identified hindrances to the smooth implementation of World Bank projects and is working to turn tides. Amongst difficulties is the incompatitibility of the implementation timetable of projects with the time required for the completion of expropriation and compensation procedures for those affected by activities of such projects, as well as the often late and insufficient mobilisation of counterpart funds. More vexing remains the low level of project maturity and poor governance, inducing a collaborative gap between some project owners and coordinators ushering in unsatisfactory project progress.
