Yaounde: CEMAC Heads of State to review road covered since 2021 March 17.

Prior to this week’s meeting, the Head of State, President Paul Biya, who is current chairperson of CEMAC, had dispatched some members of government to Presidents of CEMAC member countries.

The Minister of  the  Economy, Planning and  Regional Development, MINEPAT, Alamine Ousman Mey, and his counterpart of the Ministry of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, executed the at mission.

To note that CEMAC leaders last met on August 21, 2021. The Heads of State of CEMAC had during that summit agreed to boost the financial market of the sub-region, step up non-oil tax revenue and optimize the functioning of public institutions.

Member countries of CEMAC are; Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville.

The meeting in Yaounde this week will focus among other things measures already implemented since 2021 to improve the socioeconomic climate of the sub-region.

Challenges around sub-regional integration which member countries hope will be a reality latest 2025 would also be discussed.

The Head of States would also review the implementation of the Regional Economic Program, REP. The REP was developed by CEMAC to aid member countries hit a certain level of emergence by 2025.

Five pillars of growth within this program are; energy, agro-industry, forestry, livestock and fishing, mining and metallurgy.

The first phase of REP covered the period 2010 to 2015.  The period 2016 to 2025 are the second and third phases of the project which targets emergence.

CEMAC country presidents would also certainly review the plan to expand the monetary union to include member states of the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS. It had been put on hold because of the monetary policy of CEMAC.

ECCAS member states who are not members of CEMAC, like Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Burundi and Rwanda all have their independent currencies. The six CEMAC member states use the CFA francs attached to the French treasury.

The challenge of security too will also be a key topic of discussion. This especially concerns Chad and Cameroon. Both countries face the common threat of Boko Haram.

In addition, Cameroon in particular has the situation in the North West and South West Regions that has affected its stability since the last quarter of 2016.