Editorial: SAGO; CPDM gov't grappling with high cost of living.

The event, with the participation of some 200 exhibitors, is taking place at the Yaounde Sports Complex. It ends on Saturday July 27. It comes at a time of soaring inflation and rickety government social amenities and infrastructure.

A June 25 report on the evolution of household consumption prices, issued by the National Institute of Statistics, NIS, noted that Cameroon recorded a 6.1% inflation rate in May 2024; a 0.3% increase month-on-month, which the institute said was driven by an “8.2% increase in food prices and 15.4% in transport costs”.

The rise in food prices and transport, NIS added, had been fueled by the revaluation of transport prices due to the readjustment of the prices of fuel last February.

The African Development Bank, AfDB, in its outlook for 2024, indicated a higher inflation rate than that of NIS for Cameroon, with the highest rate, 6.3%, in the CEMAC zone, followed by Equatorial Guinea, 4.7%; Central African Republic, 4.1%; Chad, 3.4%; Congo, 3.4%; and Gabon with 2.5%.

With such dolorous statistics, the government has been grappling to ameliorate the standard of living of Cameroonians. 

Minister Sadi explained at the fair that the government “...is striving to create and maintain conditions conducive to appreciable resilience, capable of enabling us to achieve the objectives set out in the National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (NDS30)”. 

The proactive vision of the Development Strategy stands on four cardinal pillars: To achieve close to double-digit economic growth, reach the 25% threshold as the share of manufacturing production in GDP, reduce significantly poverty by less than 10% in 2035 and consolidate the democratic process and strengthen national unity while respecting the country's diversity.

That vision appears too frowzy as the World Bank projects that the extreme poverty rate in Cameroon could reach 25.0% by 2026, affecting approximately eight million people.

The bank's recent CEMAC Economic Barometer highlights that the population living in extreme poverty has already increased by more than two million since 2001, exceeding six million, or 23% of the Cameroonian population.

Minister Sadi said the lagging trend would be reversed with “good governance, as enshrined in the NDS30” to “... enable our populations to have satisfactory access to the essential basic social services that they are entitled to expect from public action”.   

He noted that governance is well thought out and adapted to the national and international context that “must be resolutely geared towards improving citizens' living conditions, for a better social integration of the population, and hence inclusive national development”.

He said the focus of government, with regard to national governance, is on “modernising the management of public finances, improving the management of public debt, rationalising the management of public companies and establishments, improving the business climate, strengthening cooperation and partnership for development, the contribution of the diaspora to national development, and regulating and monitoring the national economic space”.

The policy tallies with the mission of SAGO, which "is to provide a platform for exchanges between those responsible for implementing public policies and their partners, and institutional players, economic operators and the general public, who are the main beneficiaries of government action”.

It also has as responsibility to promote and ensure the visibility of the government's work, disseminate national public policies to a variety of contacts both within and abroad, encourage people to support the actions taken by public authorities on their behalf, help implement the national inclusion policy advocated by the government and contribute to strengthening the synergy of government work.

With this year's theme anchored on "governance" and "action", those who formulate government policy should live by example.

Is information about such policies easily accessible by members of the public and journalists? Is the National Anti-Corruption Commission, for example, given the power to take action by arresting and prosecuting suspects?

Have some members of the National Human Rights Commission and Freedoms, which is participating at the fair, not complained in the past that some of their investigators were prevented from doing their work?

Is there any action when General Managers of state corporations serve for decades, when there is a presidential decree putting the ceiling at nine years?

The mission of SAGO is commendable, just as the fair, which should be rotated in all regional capitals. But those in government who articulate state policies and laws to reduce the crushing cost of living should live by example in transparency, accountability, rule of law and actions in implementing the policies, not words glossed with honey.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3178 of Wednesday July 24, 2024