“This was yet another opportunity for the steering committee of the Economic and Financial Reforms Program (PREF-CEMAC) to take stock of the implementation of the actions of the 5th Pilar”
This session presented the evolutions recorded in the implementation of the second phase of the PREF-CEMAC particularly from the period of June 2023 and this 5th Pilar centralized on two major objectives.
The first being, the negotiations with the technical and financial partners. This involves the implementation of the macroeconomics stabilization strategy and the implementation of the reforms laying emphasis on the execution by the States program supported by the International Monetary Fund and the other partners involved in development, in view of a large access to financement with the technical assistance of some domains.
At the level of the communities, efforts are being followed up to support the countries in the CEMAC to gather necessary resources for their development. During the first mission of the subregions of the IMF that took place from the 3 to the 16th of May 2023 in Gabon and Cameroon respectively, discussions were tied towards the development of new economies and the review of common economic policies put in place to support the programs of countries in the CEMAC.
At the individual level, the relationship of the CEMAC countries with the IMF are marked by Implementation of a new financial agreement in the Central African Republic, the validation of the review of Cameroon, the persuit of discussions within the context of the review of programs of Congo and Tchad and also the resumption of preliminary exchange on the perspectives of the review of Gabon with the reestablishment of a new program with Equatorial Guinea.
Cameroon on it’s part has obtained approval at the 4th revenue program by the Facilité Élargie de crédit (FEC) and the Mechanism Élargie de Crédit ( MEDC) by the administrative council of the IMF. The country has witnessed an achievement in most of the critera, given her the validation.
Central African Republic on it’s part had a new agreement with the Administrative Council of the IMF the 27th of April 2023 in the capacity of the Facilité Élargie de Crédit (FEC) for a period of 3 years. The implementation of this program followed an envelope of 9.3 billion FCFA. This package will enable the country to meet up with some basic needs such health and education.
Congo on it’s part with the Administrative Council of the IMF on the 19th of July 2023 achieved a new agreement at the Facilité Élargie de Crédit (FEC) 324 millions of DTS that was approved on the 21st of January 2022. The budget of the IMF will enable the country to continue financing development policies through the PND 2022-2026, to maintain macroeconomic activities and to reinforce resilience and the economic resumption within a context that is affected by food inflation.
As for Gabon, a mission of the services of the IMF journeyed in Libreville at the start of July 2023 within the framework of preliminary discussions to give an appraisal of the perspectives of the third revenue program supported by the Mechanisme Élargie de Crédit (MEDC). The commission remarked less satisfaction of the program reasons for the non-respect of the principal criteria of the realisation of the indicated objectives.
Equatorial Guinea on the other hand, a team of the IMF visited Malabo from the 29th of May to the 7th of June 2023 to evaluate the recent economic evolution, update macroeconomic projections and making a countdown of the Priory policies implemented by the national authorities. The. National authorities have been called upon to follow up reforms in the management of public finance and in the fight against corruption.
Finally, Tchad, had two respective missions of the FMI and the BAD. The team visited N’Djamena in the month of May 2023 in one hand, carried out discussions within the context of the third revenue of the support program on the public finance and in the Energy sector. Globally, the performances are satisfactory.
The second main objective of this Pilar is the reinforcement of capacities of National Units. This is in the limelight of reinforcing capacities of national units for a better follow up program and projects. The committee revealed that till date the National Units are actively participating in discussions tied with economic and financial reforms. These Units will also benefit from capacity reinforcement activities within the framework of financial programs.
Juliette MESSAME
