Proposed 2016 budget:

MINFI, Alamine Ousmane

A budget to shore up the economy
Presenting the draft 2016 finance law at last month’s ministerial council meeting, the minister of Finance brought to the fore facts and figures which clearly indicate that efforts to boost economic growth would be redoubled and sustained in 2016
By Tanyi Kenneth Musa in Yaounde
At the last monthly ministerial council meeting that took place in the Star Building on Thursday, 29 October 2015, the minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, made a presentation of the 2016 finance law which his colleagues described as impressive. In the expertly presentation, he elucidated a number of points all of which are geared towards ensuring sustainable growth of Cameroon’s economy.
    The envisaged growth, the minister explained, must be accelerated in order that it can be all-inclusive and generate employment notably through the implementation of a triennial emergency plan. Besides, the financial expert went on, there would be a follow-up of the execution of the major projects that are presently going on in the country as well as a diversification of the economy and Cameroon’s trade partners so as to ensure greater resilience at a time when petroleum revenue is very volatile.

    Talking about the women’s and men’s Africa Cup of Nations which Cameroon will host in 2016 and 2019 respectively, Alamine Mey said they constitute a major challenge to the 2016 budget and to the activities to be carried out for the mobilization of resources and the execution of infrastructural projects within the required deadlines.
    The minister also made a pronouncement on the unfavourable context of the petroleum sector where the drop in price of crude on the world market might be compounded by a drop in production in 2016. He said a policy would be put in place to erase this deficit, and added that a supplementary fiscal effort would be expected from different services for the coming year. For this reason, the tax revenue to be raised in 2016 was increased by 10.1% compared to 2015.
    As concerns expenditures, Alamine intimated that avenues for expenditure would be reduced so that revenue can increase. He also talked about the putting in place of SIGIPES II in 2016 so that state agents and the mass salary paid them can be better managed. This management of state agents, he explained, would be at three levels: recruitment, postings (job sites) expenditures (salaries).