Development Minerals: UN Moves To Trigger Financing For SMEs

 The UNDP, in collaboration with development partners in a seminar on March 19, schooled banking and financing institutions on the importance of artisanal miners.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the European Union, the African Guarantee Fund and the Ministry of Mines, Industries and Technological Development want to facilitate access to funding for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Cameroon  dealing with development minerals.

The institutions jointly organised a workshop in Yaounde on March 19 to educate some forty-five representatives of institutions in Cameroon’s financial sector including commercial banks, development banks, micro-finance institutions and cooperative credit unions on financial inclusion for development minerals.

Francis Andrianarison, representative of the Resident Representative of the UNDP, in an address, pointed out development minerals are minerals and materials that are mined, processed, manufactured and used domestically in industries like construction, manufacturing, agriculture and infrastructure.

These include sand, gravel, cement, limestone, granite, clay among other materials commonly used in road, housing and other infrastructure projects.
Chariot Moussa, National Coordinator of the ACP-EU programmme at the UNDP told reporters that 90 per cent of activities in the construction domain in Cameroon are artisanal.

He said the main aim of the workshop was to sensitise stakeholders in the financing sector on the importance of the sector so that they can come up with loan options that suit businessmen. He said they are encouraging local financial institutions to tap from the African Guarantee Fund, while simultaneously encouraging SMEs in the development minerals sector to reorganise themselves and get loans from t...