1 million Cameroonians join the poor- Report

Cameroon has failed to halve poverty by 2015 in tandem with the UN Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.

Instead, one million people have joined the ranks of the poor in ten years, according to the fourth household study the National Institute of Statistics carried out recently.

The results of the study published in Yaounde indicate that the number of poor people in Cameroon increased from 7.1 million in 2007 to 8.1 million in 2014.This means that 8.1 million Cameroonians live below the poverty line which is FCFA 931 a day; less than FCFA 339,715 a year.

This situation signifies an increase in the cost of living in Cameroon over the past 10 years. In 2007, the poverty line was drawn below FCFA 269,443 per year. Going by the statistics, each poor individual in Cameroon needs FCFA 339,715 a year to get out of the shackles of poverty.

Despite the increase in the ranks of the poor, the fourth household study on poverty has only an insignificant drop in over 10 years. It reduced from 39.7 percent in 2007 to 37.5 percent in 2015. This drop by 2.4 points, according to experts, is due to the implementation of some of the measures in the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, GESP.

Economic experts qualify this as a far below the average performance since Cameroon was expected to reduce poverty to at least 26.5 percent by 2015 in the letter and spirit of the MDGs. In the strategic paper, government projects reducing poverty to 28.7 percent by 2020.

Meanwhile, government has projected a six-percent economic growth. The report indicates that the gap between the poor and the rich has continued to widen. It rose to 13 percent between 2007 and 2014.It presents a yawning gap wherein, the poor continue to get poorer while the rich grow richer. The study indicates that economic growth oscillated between 4 percent and 4.7 percent between 2007 and 2014.

The economists of the institute say the widening gap between the poor and the rich made the fight against poverty very difficult. They hold that government can only arrest the situation if it ensures a better distribution of wealth in the country.

To them, measures should be taken to increase the household revenue of the poor, 90 percent of whom are in rural areas. The report also recommends quality job creation as a way out of the quagmire.

The study also reveals that another ill plaguing the Cameroon economy is under-employment among the youth, which moved from 71.1 percent in 2007 to 79.0 percent in 2014. The antidote for such a situation, the study holds, is the amelioration of the business climate in order to attract more private investments. It also recommends the creation of jobs in the country by re-launching the agricultural and industrial sectors and other areas that stir economic growth.

The report urges government to stop the tariff-free importation of products that are also produced in Cameroon like rice, maize and oil. The recommendations of the study seem to be in agreement with the prescriptions of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, ChristineLagarde who visited Cameroon recently.

She said the lack of an attractive environment for private investments and the stalled process of integration in the CEMAC region are some of the impediments of the Cameroonians economy. She equally recommended private sector development and stringent public spending as a way of boosting economic growth and maintaining a healthy economy.