The government of Cameroon through the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), is looking for ways through which the covid-19 pandemic effects and other economic shocks could be mitigated.
The Director General of the Economy and Public Investments Programming, Isaac TAMBA on Thursday December 17, 2020 in Yaounde, presided over the Economic Policy Council session placed under the theme “Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery.
The session enabled members of the Council to review the flagship measures taken by the government on the budgetary and monetary plans in order to mitigate the perverse effects of the Covid-19 on the economy of the country.
The participants from MINEPAT, Ministry of Finance (MINFI) and stakeholders in economic issues proposed concrete measures to be implemented in view of stabilizing and re-launching sustainable economic activities. These include, among others: the continuation of budgetary consolidation efforts, support for import-substitution, continuous improvement of the business climate. Some of these measures have been taken into account in the state finance bill for the 2021 fiscal year.
“150 billion FCFA was put in place for 2020-2023 with 50 billion set aside for 2021 to support production units”, Isaac Tamba said.
The session was also characterized by presentations on specific themes notably: the effectiveness of budgetary instruments and the adequacy of monetary instruments in the re-launch policy presented by Cyrill Edou Alo’o, Director General of Budget at MINFI and BEAC National Director, Blaise Eugene Nsom respectively.
It is worth indicating that the growth of Cameroon’s economy in the past years has been greatly hindered by the security crises in the North West, South West and Far North regions, the fall in oil prices in 2014, the recent fire incident at SONARA and of recent, the covid-19 pandemic. It is within this context that the government is looking for measures to counter the challenges.
