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The North-West Regional Assembly shall operate on a budget of 3 billion.
The budget that was voted in Bamenda recently has been criticised by many as an amount too small to fast-tract the development of a region that has been neglected by the Yaounde government for decades, making a mockery of the special status package.
The budget shall be realized mainly from government funding at the moment.
A leaked document circulating on social media has left many people in Bamenda wandering aloud what the future of the assembly will be like.
According to the leaked document,the regional assembly has been empowered to raise funds through the sale of stamps on vehicle registration also called cartegris, charges for the use of forestry, animal and fishing resources, charges for the use of water resources, dues for the use of petroleum resources, dues from the use of mineral resources, fees from fishing and animal breeding, taxes from energy resources
airport fees, and fees from touristic sites.
Public opinion in Bamenda at the moment is that of suprise.
A region without an airport, oil wells, little or no developed touristic sites cannot be able to generate income and pay taxes to the regional assembly.
According to Nestor Afanwi, economist in Bamenda, the regional assembly is building castles in the air.
“How can you plan to make income from something that does not exist? The assembly should have concerntrated her attention in the development of such economic domains before planning to raise revenue from them,” he said.
Bamenda as a town like elsewhere in the region has no industry. The region has been able to be where it is thanks to remittances from abroad.
