Cameroon among highest beneficiaries of French dev’t aid!.

The statistics from FDA indicates that Cameroon alone consumes not less than 50% of all the development aid given by the French government to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and three other member states of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States, CEMAC, viz Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, and Central African Republic, CAR.

According to the FDA, the French government disbursed 1.8 trillion FCFA to the five designated countries within a period of seven years. Which means the government of Cameroon alone consumed some 0.9 trillion FCFA of the total aid package.

In actual terms, the development agency stated that it granted a total of 2.8 billion Euros; which is over 1.8 trillion FCFA to finance projects in five Central African countries from 2016-2022. 

The countries that secured the financing are notably Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic.

The Paris funding agency insisted that the financing does not include the 487.4 million Euros; which is nearly 320 billion FCFA, injected by PROPARCO, FDA’s private sector financing subsidiary.

In the French financial institution’s activity report made public recently, FDA indicated that Cameroon alone accounted for 50% of the non-PROPARCO envelope during the period under review. 

In concrete terms, the financing obtained by Cameroon from FDA amounted to 1.4 billion Euros; which translates to about 918.3 billion FCFA. 

The institution further declared that the envelope to Cameroon is almost triple the amount to Congo Brazzaville; which stood at 483.7 million Euros; or 317.2 billion FCFA, constituting 18% of the overall envelope between 2016 and 2022, which is FDA’s second largest financing destination in Central Africa.   

It also disclosed that 12% of overall financing; some 347 million Euros; which is about 227.6 billion FCFA, went to Gabon. This means Libreville captured barely a quarter of FDA financing compared to Cameroon. 

The same goes for DR Congo, which received just 332.1 million Euros over the seven years, or nearly 218 billion FCFA. 

"At the crossroads of West and Central Africa, Cameroon has historically been one of AFD Group's most important countries of intervention," FDA stated.

Adding that most of FDA's financing in Cameroon is directed towards infrastructure projects and urban development. The institution reveals that in 2022 alone, 64% of its financing to Cameroon; put at about 26.3 million Euros; or some 82.8 billion FCFA, went to the funding of infrastructure projects. 

Even more important, the FDA adds that it also finances projects in agriculture and food security, accounting for 27% of financing in 2022, health, education, employment and vocational training, water and sanitation, and more. 

In total, by December 31, 2022, this institution, which acts as the secular arm of French official development assistance, claimed to have 55 projects being executed in Cameroon.