Cameroon secures FCfa 9 billion to rehabilitate Lake Chad

A five-year investment deal was sealed by government and the African Development Bank on Thursday, July 2, 2015.

The climate change phenomenon and terrorist insurgency around Lake Chad resulting in land degradation have pushed the Lake Chad Basin Commission to widen its scope of sourcing for funding to address the nerve-racking situation, affecting 15.3 million people.

Countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Nigeria) have embarked on a five-year investment programme to Rehabilitate and Reinforce the Socio-ecological Resilience System of the LCBC dubbed PRESIBALT, evaluated at FCFA 53.795 billion.

Cameroon’s contribution was secured with a loan from the African Development Bank Thursday, July 2, 2015. The Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi and the Country Representative of the African Development Bank, ADfB, Racine Kane on the one hand and the MINEPAT boss and the Executive Secretary of the LCBC, Sanusi Imran Abdullahi, on the other, affixed signatures on the FCFA 9.650 billion agreement.

Unlike Cameroon and Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic and Niger have been offered grants by the continental bank as their contribution to the investment venture.

Racine Kane said the level of development in the five countries were not the same, emphasizing that Cameroon and Nigeria were benefitting from a concessional loan that goes up to 15 years with 10 as period of grace. “We will come back with more support for the LCBC,” the ADfB scribe pledged.

The ADfB is offering 75.6 per cent of the project total cost with other funding partners and counterpart funds from countries of the LCBC expected to provide 24.4 per cent to the project.

MINEPAT notes that losses in agricultural production (cereals) are evaluated at 10 per cent over the years with water levels dropping by 90 per cent. The progressive salinization of the soil, the invasion of aquatic vegetation, the reduction of farmland as well as the waters of River Logone and Chari and that of Komaduogou-Yobé towards the lake, has caused a toll on people.

Nganou Djoumessi sees the loan as a panacea. The amount will also improve the inflow of water on the River Logone and Chari, the re-flooding of the Waza-Logone “Yaéré” and the rehabilitation of the agro-meteorological observation network. The LCBC is the vote holder of the PRESIBALT.

Sanusi Imran Abdullahi holds that poverty and land degradation have pushed youths to join terrorism. The LCBC Executive Secretary stressed that PRESIBALT was tailored to reverse the worrying situation. Transparency, efficiency and better management of resources and the implementation of the 2015-2019 programme have been prescribed by funding bodies as prerequisite for more support. Cameroon’s Economy Minister pledged country’s commitment. Cameroon’s counterpart funding stands at FCFA 666.46 million.