Gov’t doles out paltry 119 MFCFA as aid to private media.

The amount was announced in Yaounde, September 12, at the start of the 5th session of the National Commission for Assistance to Private Press.

The session was chaired by the Minister of Communication, Emmanuel Rene Sadi, who doubles as President of the said commission.

In his opening remarks, Minister Rene Sadi disclosed that the subvention to the private press this year stands at 119 million FCFA, all taxes inclusive.

While urging the members to examine the applications in all objectivity and impartiality, Minister Rene Sadi expressed government’s commitment to ensuring a robust, sustainable and responsible media that promotes democracy, national unity and other republican values.

The minister revealed that a total of 71 applications were received for media aid. Of the said number, the minister revealed that there were 65 newspapers and six online outlets.

The funds made available this year witnessed an increase from the 56 million FCFA allocated for same purpose in 2022.  

According the Director of Private Media Development and Publicity at the Ministry of Communication, Ngankak Kisito, who doubles as Head of the Technical Secretariat of the national commission, the increase in the amount allocated is the fruit of a positive advocacy fronted by the minister.

“It is the fruit of good advocacy that he fronted...it is a process and we have not attained the amount we want in the envelope…we are on the right path,” Ngankak said.

“It is the wish of the minister for us to intensify our advocacy for more financial resources to be allocated for this purpose,” he added.

According Ngankak, the applications are being examined based on a ministerial decision signed in April 2023, considering a number of conditions to be fulfilled by the applicants.

He stressed that the laid down conditions include the respect of ethics of the profession, enrolment of staff into the National Social Insurance Fund, fulfilment of tax duties amongst others.

Newspaper publishers want more

Speaking shortly after the opening ceremony, a member of the commission who doubles at the Publisher of Cameroon’s most authoritative English Language daily newspaper, The Guardian Post, Ngah Kristian Mbipgo, expressed gratitude to government for the increase in the amount allocated. He however quickly pleaded for more.

“We appreciate the little increase but our cry is the same-rise the amount to at least 500 million FCFA,” the mediapreneur stated.

The Guardian Post publisher who doubles as President of the Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers Association, CENPA, stated that: “The envelope used to be 250 million FCFA and we are still looking for a genuine explanation as to why it has dropped in recent years to 119 including the taxes that we have to pay…at the end of the day, we will be sharing less than 90 million FCFA”.

In the same vein, another member of the commission and publisher of the French language newspaper, Integration, Thierry Ndong, noted that the efforts of government still need to be upped.

“We salute the effort made because we have been crying about the amount but we still need the amount to be raised back to its initial amount,” Ndong stated.