World Bank; education can be a new source of economic growth for Cameroon

According to the World Bank, it will be difficult for Cameroon to become an emerging nation by 2035, as the authorities have planned, in light of the lags it has already encountered relative to its growth projections.

The international financial institution noted in its last report that “the average growth rate from 2010 to 2013 was 4.1%, which is one percentage point below the Vision 2035 target (and 0.8 percentage points below the DSCE reference point)”.

To reverse the trend, “make-up for the lag and meet the official goals for 2020, an annual growth rate of 9.5% for the period 2014-2020 would be necessary, compared to the World Bank’s current projections of 4.8-5.4%. This situations calls for renewed attention to growth sources in Cameroon. In light of the major impact of education on long term growth, a revision of growth sources should begin to examine the quality of human capital available,” analysed the World Bank.

Supporting this recommendation, the Bretton Woods institution revealed that “endogenous growth theories have been tested over the last three decades in a lot of countries and have confirmed that human capital plays an essential role in economic growth.” In this regard, concluded the World Bank, “education, as well as health, can contribute significantly to Cameroon’s goal of becoming an emerging economy by 2035.”

World Bank analysts are also advising the Cameroonian government to invest heavily in education because, “although expenditure in public education has increased in Cameroon, moving from 1.9% of GDP to 3.3% in 2003, it has since been at a standstill, remaining below the regional average of 4.3%.”