Cameroon: Regional Councils go silent, no operational budget

There has been little or no activity carried out in all Regional Councils in Cameroon and that of the North West Region in particular after the first session as of right in January 2021.

To rekindle activities of the North West Regional Council, an interministerial delegation with experts from the Ministry of Finance, as well as the Ministry of economy, planning and regional development and the Ministry of decentralisation and local development have opened a two-day workshop in Bamenda with councilors aimed at drafting an operational budget.

Prof. Fru Angwafor III, president of the North West regional council says “The North West has specificities and one of them is insecurity and the crisis. This demands that a significant part of the budget will go into peace building”.

To the regional councilors, without a veritable peace, implementing development activities will not be a reality in the region even when the budget will be available.

With the process of effective decentralisation and transfer of competence still in an initial stage, Ediage Jabea, head of the delegation has stated that “…within the scope of the budget for 2021, some obligatory aspects and programs will be put in place to ensure the transfer of competences and finances to the regions to ease the running of activities.”

Opening the session Tuesday, April 6, 2021, the governor of the North West, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique attests that the government is manifesting goodwill to see an effective functioning of the regional council by drawing the budget.

From January 2021 when the first regional session of councillors as of right took place to April, two regional councilors in the North West have died with no replacement made as of now.



Mbatho Ntan.