Buea council : Over FCFA 100 billion for projects

Over FCFA 100 billion have been earmarked as Public Investment Budget for the South West Region this year. Some 191 projects have been endorsed for the region against 179 for 2015. Target is that contracts for executing the projects be awarded by April so as to give contractors enough time to execute them.

Giving an exhaustive presentation of a circular of the Minister of Finance on the budget, an official from the ministry, Gideon Barfree, stated that the budget for the South West comprises FCFA 12,112,803,780 for functioning while FCFA 82,94, 086,204 will be used to spearhead investment. He also stated that priority will be given to growth-induced sectors such as energy, agriculture, infrastructure and mining.

The Finance Controller for the South West Region, Alice Nouboue outlined certain difficulties such as follow up of budgetary information on time from councils, wrong allocation of budget as well as projects that were programmed but no credits came like in Ndian division. The Regional Delegate of Public Contracts, Kati Alfred Njinti said in 2015, 179 projects were given out and 114 were completed and received with an 89.4 per cent fiscal realization. In 2016, he said there are 191 projects to be awarded by April. He added that the execution of these projects depends on the commitment of stakeholders.