Reforms That Are Yielding Fruits

Cameroon is one of the fastest growing economies in the central Africa sub-region. The growth witnessed in the past years albeit exogenous and internal chal- lenges is credited to its structural reforms put in place with the support of its international partners like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, among others. Structural reforms like the mo- dernisation of public finance, import-substitution policy, support to SMEs, investment incentives, fiscal decentralization, among others, are beginning to bear tangible fruits, with several positive outcomes. While addressing Cameroonians in his traditional end-of-year state of the Nation address on Wednesday December 31, President Paul Biya consecrated a si- gnificant portion of his speech on the economy. “The structural reforms we have implemented with the support of our international partners have consolidated our public finances and preserved the main macroe- conomic balances,” he noted as he demonstrated a perfect savvy of the national and global economic situation, which have been marked by uncertainty all these while. But Cameroon has been able to navi- gate the murky economy climate, through measures which have curbed inflation and boosted local pro- duction. The country successfully completed two straight IMF programmes, achieving 41 structural benchmarks and accessing over FCFA 2,600 billion in budgetary support. It is currently considering a new structural programme with the IMF for 2026- 2029, with the aim to consolidate fiscal stability and support economic growth which according to IMF, is estimated to attain a 4.5 per cent growth in 2026, up from 3.9 in 2025. The structural reforms which the President made allusion to in his speech, also enabled Cameroon to make progress in reducing fiscal deficit from 6.5 per cent in 2017 to 1.5 per cent in 2025. With the successfully implementation of the reforms, the President of the Republic reaffirmed that the public investment budget has increased si- gnificantly. This is evidenced with several development projects being implemented or launched in several sectors of the national economy with the goal to meet the aspirations of the people and improve their well-being. One of the key sectors of the national economy which the President of the Republic highlighted was electricity with the just completed and commissioning of the 420MW Nachtigal Dam over River Sanaga which has brought in a new impetus in the sector as it has injected more megawatts in the South Inter- connected Grid, thereby stabilising electricity supply in most parts of the southern zone of the country. In the northern zone, the installation of solar plants in Guider and Maroua has also greatly boosted electricity supply in the North Interconnected Grid. The ongoing construction of new power transmission lines and rehabilitation of existing grid, President Biya noted, will further improve power supply to industry and households. With the takeover of electricity utility company (ENEO) by the government (95 per cent shares bought at FCFA 78 billion) under the impulse of President Paul Biya, the company is expected to be more efficient in supplying energy henceforth. The move which is seen as a strategic milestone will not ...