The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on 25 July 2022 that its Executive Board has validated the 2nd review of the agreements with Cameroon, under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

The approval of this 2nd review of the three-year economic and financial programme (2021-2024) signed between Cameroon and this Bretton Woods institution allows the country to benefit from a new disbursement of 72.9 million dollars, or 46.8 billion CFA francs.

This new envelope, according to the IMF, brings to 346.1 million dollars, or a little more than 222.2 billion CFA francs, the volume of disbursements already made to the Cameroonian government since the conclusion of the economic and financial programme with the IMF, July 29, 2021. The IMF notes, however, that these disbursements are made even though “the overall results of the programme are mixed…”, reads the official communiqué released to this effect.

“Cameroon’s performance under the programme remains in line with objectives and structural reforms are progressing, even if delays are observed in some key areas,” said Kenji Okamura, Deputy Managing Director and Acting President of the Fund. However, he said that “the (Cameroonian) authorities are determined to achieve the objectives of the programme and to accelerate the pace of implementation of reforms to support the diversification of the economy under the impetus of the private sector.

The acceleration of reforms underpinning the programme with the IMF, particularly in the areas of transparency, good governance and the fight against corruption, “is essential to obtain additional financing from donors,” recalls Kenji Okamura. Indeed, according to the Cameroonian government’s forecasts, the current economic programme could generate up to CFA F 1,000 billion for the public treasury.

“This programme highlights a financing gap for the period 2021-2024 of about CFAF 1,000 billion, of which the IMF contribution is about CFAF 375 billion. The remainder (625 billion CFA francs) should be provided by other financial partners in terms of budgetary support,” revealed Jean Tchoffo, the chairman of the Technical Committee for the Monitoring of Economic Programmes (CTS), a specialised structure of the Ministry of Finance. This was during the annual conference of the central, deconcentrated and external services of this ministerial department, organized on February 25, 2022 in Yaounde.