The grant contract was signed on May 18 between the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development and the French Development Agency, as part of the development and debt reduction contract.
The Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development MINEPAT, Alamine Ousmane Mey and the French Development Agency (AFD), signed this May 18, a grant agreement of 10 million Euros or 6.5 billion FCFA, in the form of budget support to the Ministry of Public Health. This is part of the debt reduction and development contract (C2D). The funding will be used to strengthen the response to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. The contracts with the operators should be signed soon by Ministry of Public Health, so that operations can start.
This support will have three objectives: to strengthen the management of Covid-19 cases, in particular serious cases in the referral hospitals of Yaoundé, Douala and Bafoussam by increasing the number of hospital and intensive care beds; strengthen the active search for cases by strengthening the Public Health Ministry’s rapid intervention and investigation teams and tracers of contact tracking. Finally, strengthen the massive acquisition of personal protective equipment and biomedical equipment and supplies. Within the framework of its objectives, the choice of the cities of Yaoundé, Douala and Bafoussam, is explained by the fact that these three regions concentrate the majority of the cases that total the country to date.
In addition to this funding, there are two other complementary funds from the French Development Agency, still responding to the Coronavirus pandemic in Cameroon. This is the nationwide Covid-19 diagnostic support program that includes 6,000 virus screening tests and laboratory equipment for the country’s Pasteur Center and 17 partner laboratories in the regions. This will be carried out at the request of the Ministry of Public Health, AFD and German cooperation KFW (kreditanstalt für wiederautbau). It amounts to 1 million euros or 657.4 billion FCFA.
The second project concerns support for research on the Covid-19 and the definition of the African response to the Research Institute for Development (IRD). It is set at FCFA 289.2 million. This project was announced by French Ambassador to Cameroon Christophe Guilhou, during an audience granted to him by the Minister of Scientific Research and Innovation Madeleine Tchuinte.
