SOWEDA Board hails management for 94% budget realisation.

In his opening speech during the session, SOWEDA Board Chair, Ediage Apande Herbert, said the meeting was convened principally to examine and eventually validate management’s reports for the 2025 financial year, in line with its statutory mandate.

Ediage reminded board members that their “foremost responsibility is the exercise of strategic oversight duties to ensure that SOWEDA remains accountable, efficient, and faithful to its mission of fostering rural development”.

After a lengthy review, the Board Chairman expressed satisfaction with the work that was done by management. 

“We had a budget of about 3.8 billion FCFA, and about 3.6 billion was mobilized, giving us an average execution rate of about 94 percent,” he said. 

The achievement, the Board said, was considered a sign of good work by management in spite of the financial constraints. The session reviewed reports from its two Standing Committees. 

The Audit Committee is tasked with advising on the adoption of financial statements and guarding against issues that threaten Board independence and efficiency. 

The Development Committee will advise on closing projects such as AIVDP, signing MoUs with partners including INBAR and MINTP, and protecting SOWEDA’s oversight on initiatives like AIVDP II.

The meeting took place against what the board chairman described as a much better socio-political condition following years of unrest in the North West and South West. However, he noted a major constraint: the dwindling government subsidies, which remain the resource mainstay of our establishment.” 

To management, the board encouraged them to refocus its 2026 programs on youths and women. The recommendation of including women and young people, the Board Chair stressed aligns with national directives. 

“The Head of State said that state or government action should give priority to actions that benefit the youths and women, so management should tilt its actions to make sure that the benefits go to youths and women as well,” he explained.

He also revealed that SOWEDA plans a public ceremony to launch its budget next year. 

“We hope to use that opportunity to reach out to youths, to women, and to everyone else in the rural areas…to explain the openings available to them. There are lots of openings that some of our youths, especially in the South West, don’t know about in structures, in ministries, and in other institutions that can assist our youth in their bid to come up with start-ups and all of that,” he said. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3836 of Friday July 03, 2026