Cameroon signs €80.4mn loan agreement with AfDB for economic growth support program

The Country Manager of the African Development Bank in Cameroon, Solomane Kone and the Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Governor of the African Development Bank Group for Cameroon, Alamine Ousmane Mey were in Yaoundé to sign a loan agreement for the financing of the third phase of the Support Program for Competitiveness and Economic Growth (PACCE III), in the presence of the Cameroonian Minister of Finance, Louis-Paul Motaze.

In the amount of 80.4 million euros, or approximately 52.74 billion FCFA, this approval supplements the previous agreements relating to phases I and II of the PACCE, signed in December 2017 and December 2018, for amounts of 180 million euros and 150 million euros respectively, bringing the cumulative amount of multi-year program budget support (2017, 2018 and 2019) of the Bank Group to Cameroon to 410.4 million euros (or approximately 269.2 billion of FCFA).

Cameroon signed on June 26, 2017, with the International Monetary Fund, a three-year agreement (2017-2020) under the Extended Credit Facility, for an amount of SDR 483 million under the Regional economic and financial reform program of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (PREF-CEMAC). The Bank participates in this Program alongside other institutions, notably the French Development Agency, the World Bank and the European Union.

This Agreement intends to pursue Cameroon's external and budgetary balance objectives through two main components: the rationalization of the public finance management framework with a view to strengthening macroeconomic stability, creating budgetary margins, prioritizing projects for public investment and stimulating growth; and strengthening the governance and competitiveness of the productive sectors, in particular transport, energy and agriculture.

The signing of this Loan Agreement, as well as the approval on December 18, 2019 by the Bank's Board of Directors of the financing of the second tranche of the Ring road for an amount of 161.6 million euros, bring the Bank Group portfolio in Cameroon with 35 operations, for an amount of 2.63 billion euros.