Councils, Public Works Ministry enter road-care partnerships

All councils or local governments from the Littoral, North West, West and South West Regions of Cameroon have begun technical partnerships with the Ministry of Public Works to improve on the country’s road network.

The partnerships were materialised, with the signing of technical assistance conventions between each of the 142 Councils and the Ministry in charge of Public Works in Buea, South West Regional Capital.

By the conventions, the Ministry of Public Works provided technical inputs meanwhile the councils will conceive and direct road maintenance needs.

The wave of partnerships, begun on 25 August in Mbalmayo with other Regions, expected to hatch a new lease in constructing structures like bridges and mending existing degrading roads.

Presiding at the conventions signing ceremony at the Buea Council hall, Patrice Amba Salla underscored that workshops had earlier been organised to prepare Councils in the management and preservation of roads as part of public assets.

The Minister explained that, the Head of State, President Paul Biya, has increased the financial packages for each council from FCFA 13 million last year to FCFA 28 million this year.

The move is to help accelerate and better exercise the irreversible decentralised competences in the road sector. Minister Amba Salla praised the European Union (EU) for their multiple contributions in accompanying Cameroon’s decentralization drive.

Oliete Sergio, the EU’s Head of Infrastructure Section in Cameroon, amplified the front-line role of the Ministry of Public Works in Cameroon’s decentralization process.

He later told the press the EU has invested some 178 million euros in Cameroon’s rural development including the decentralisation process.