Gov’t gets over 21.1 BFCFA Arab Bank loan for NW, SW reconstruction.

In a release sent to The Guardian Post by the communication unit of the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, the Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, outlined the modalities that led to actualising the grab.

According to the Minister of the Economy, he received high instructions from President Paul Biya, to travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where arrangements were finalised, signatures appended to relevant documents for the funds to be disbursed.

Apart from reconstruction, the MINEPAT boss said the funds would also be channeled to the rehabilitation of essential infrastructure, reinforce social cohesion, and revitalize local economic activities in the two regions.

Minister Alamine further disclosed that the funding agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 48^th annual meeting of the council of governors of the Islamic Development Bank Group, IDB Group, which is a multilateral development financing institution comprising five entities.

The entities include the Islamic Development Bank, IDB, Islamic Research and Training Institute, IRTI, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, ICD, Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit, ICIEC, and International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, ITFC.

Headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the IDB Group also has three regional offices in member countries: Almaty (Kazakhstan), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), and Rabat (Morocco). 

It is also in the process of opening its fourth regional office in Dakar, Senegal. 

The Bank has field representatives in thirteen member countries namely: Bangladesh, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.

Any country interested in the membership of an entity in the IDB Group is required to fulfil three conditions, namely, membership of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, OIC, payment of its contribution to the capital of the entity, and acceptance of the terms and conditions that may be decided upon by the entity’s Board of Governors.

After the signing, Minister Alamine took time to express deep gratitude on behalf of President Biya, the government, and all Cameroonians, to the IDB.

He added that the loan remains a significant boost to government’s effort to reconstruct, rehabilitate and revive economic activities in the two English-speaking regions.