Cameroon’s state budget has increased by 538 billion FCFA (about 880 million U.S. dollars), we learned Thursday from an order signed by the president of the Paul Biya Republic.
The presidential order modifies and supplements the 2024 finance law passed in December 2023. The state budget thus increases from 6,740.1 billion FCFA to 7,278.1 billion FCFA, an increase of 7.9%.
In detail, 7,212.5 billion FCFA are devoted to the general budget and 65.6 billion FCFA for the special allocation accounts. Now rectified, this budget will be adopted by parliament during its second ordinary session of the year, which opened on June 11 in Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital.
Last February, the government announced measures not provided for in the voted budget, such as the increase in the prices of certain petroleum products at the pump, the 5% increase in civil servants’ salaries and that of the guaranteed inter-professional minimum wage.
This readjustment would make it possible to rebalance expenditure in relation to expected revenue. Having already recorded “a substantial level of extra-budgetary expenditure” in 2023, the Cameroonian authorities have expressed their determination to reduce the non-oil primary budget deficit to 2% of GDP in 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a press release published at the beginning of June.
In the order of the President of the Republic, the amount of resources intended to supply the Fund for financing the reconstruction of areas recognized as economically devastated in the Far North , North West and South West Regions were known a raise. They increase from 30 billion FCFA to 35 billion FCFA for the financial year 2024. As another novelty, the ceiling of debts of public and private entities vis-à-vis the State that the government is authorized to cede to commercial banks , is set at an amount of 170 billion FCFA during the 2024 financial year.
The amount to be mobilized on the financial markets has increased. During the 2024 financial year, the government is able to resort to borrowing on the internal and external financial and banking markets, for the financing needs of development projects, and the clearance of outstanding payments, for a maximum amount of 747 billion FCFA. The ceiling of loans to be mobilized on the domestic financial market , in particular by issuing public securities, is set at 280 billion FCFA, intended to finance development projects. The ceiling of resources to be mobilized on external banking markets is set at 467 billion FCFA, intended for the clearance of outstanding payments.
In the order of the President of the Republic, the stamp duty for obtaining a national identity card increases to 10,000 FCFA.
The IMF forecasts growth of 3.9% in 2024 for Cameroon “subject to continued reforms and a favorable external context”.
