Businessmen Appraise AfDB Financing Options

By Godlove BAINKON, Cameroon Tribune, 30-06-2014
After their meeting with officials in Douala on June 27, 2014, they say win-win cooperation is possible.
Against a backdrop of new financing mechanisms proposed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as it clocks 50, Cameroon’s business class, say partnership is possible if growth-induced sectors are identified and mutually-beneficial financing made available.

With telling statistics from the AfDB Resident Representative in Cameroon, Racine Kane, notably that the bank has disbursed over FCFA 990 billion for the financing of some 91 projects in a wide-range of sectors in the country, business people in Cameroon see in AfDB a veritable development partner. Economy, Planning and Regional Development Minister, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, and Racine Kane were in Douala Friday June 26 to sell the new AfDB financing mechanisms to actors of the private sector.
Cameroon Tribune randomly sampled the opinions of the business class after the session. While some of the respondents prayed for the development of well-adapted financing mechanisms, others advocated the channelling of the funds to a common investment fund from where potential investors can tap.
Another school of thought holds that there is need to put in place a fiscal policy for agricultural projects given that most of them are done in small-scale and often by individuals. A proposal which ties with AfDB plans for next year notably an envisaged agricultural value-chain programme with target to boost agricultural production as well as intensify and diversify local processing.