Editorial: "Import substitution", new buzz phrase for CPDM gov't.

“I invite you to seize the opportunities offered by the implementation of the three-year integrated import-substitution plan, 2024-2026, to engage in production activities. They will allow you not only to be useful to your country, but also to find the means to provide for your needs,” the Head of State declared during his speech to youth on February 10, this year.

He also reiterated the buzz phrase in his end-of-year speech on December 31, 2023, stating that: “The three-year integrated import-substitution plan for the period 2024-2026, which I prescribed to the government, is also part of my concern to allow our country to save precious resources. This plan, by strengthening our food sovereignty, should reduce the negative impact of imports on our trade balance. The related deficit is estimated at just over 1,500 billion FCFA per year”. 

Since then, "import substitution" has become the focus of speeches, seminars and meetings by government ministers. 

The Guardian Post praises the collaborative spirit in heeding the instructions of the Head of State to cushion the impact on the high cost of living and squeezing pressure on the balance of payment.

Clearly, Paul Biya calls on young people to invest in the production of goods and services to limit imports. According to the National Institute of Statistics, INS, Cameroon spent 1,325 billion FCFA to import goods and services in the second quarter of 2023. 

This corresponds to an increase of 274.4 billion FCFA (+26.1%), compared to 2022, i.e. a negative contribution of 4.5 points to the growth of Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

According to experts, Cameroon is still struggling to reduce rather exponential imports.

To support its import substitution policy, officially launched in 2021, the country plans to mobilise 127.5 billion FCFA in 2024. 

According to the 2023-2024 import substitution execution and budgeting report annexed to the project of the 2024 finance law, the budget envelope is up by 13 billion FCFA (+10%), compared to the 114.5 billion FCFA of 2023.

Credible media reports note that implementation reveals poor financial execution of resources allocated to certain administrations involved in the chain.

According to online news site, Investir au Cameroun, "out of a revised allocation of 114.5 billion FCFA in 2023, only 62.3 billion (54.46%) were authorised at the end of September 2023".   

It quotes the government document pointing out that such "factors are slowing down the implementation of the import substitution policy. This concerns in particular the isolation of large agricultural basins".

For 2024, the Ministry of Public Work, MINTP, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, MINADER, will respectively dedicate 7.2 billion and 3.3 billion to support import substitution. 

These funds would be used to open up agricultural, industrial and tourist production areas and the rest, for the rehabilitation and maintenance of municipal roads.

The Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, at an annual conference with his staff in Yaounde on February 14 and 15, branded the theme as: “Promoting employment and skills development in a context of import substitution policy"

He told reporters later that: “The discussions enabled us to assimilate the import-substitution context and its implications, and also to find solutions that will enable the vocational training system to develop an adequate supply of production and processing of local products. This will create jobs, reduce foreign products and contribute to growth and development”

The minister further said he was committed to contributing to import substitution by putting the right, high-quality skills on the market to meet the challenge. 

This, in a bid to meet up with the demands of the National Development Strategy, NDS30, which highlights priority sectors such as energy, digital technology, agro-industry, manufacturing, mining and construction, all needed for the country’s structural transformation. 

Other ministers are taking the cue in various discussions with stakeholders.

But given the government's insatiable appetite for foreign goods and services such as medical evacuation abroad, luxury cars, and even corruption to circumvent foreign exchange controls, the desire to reduce imports, through local production and consumption is still far from achieving its objective, despite making "import substitution" a sing-song.