EU Signs 29 Billion CFA Francs in Green Development Financing with Cameroon

Yaoundé, 4 October 2022. Cameroon's Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), Alamine Ousmane Mey, and the Head of the European Union Delegation to Cameroon, Ambassador Philippe Van Damme, signed two financing agreements worth a combined 28.9 billion CFA francs: Cameroon: Green, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities and Cameroon: Green and Resilient North.

1. Green, inclusive and sustainable cities: 15.74 billion CFA francs

This programme contributes to the third priority of the EU's 2021–2027 Multiannual Indicative Programme (MIP) for Cameroon, "Green Deal: sustainable development and climate action". It supports decentralisation and urban governance in three cities:

• Yaoundé: support for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, small-scale transport reform and better mobility in the city centre;
• Maroua: alongside the French Development Agency (AFD) and the World Bank, participatory development and more green and public spaces, for a better quality of life and greater climate resilience;
• Douala: EU support to a European Investment Bank waste-management project.

2. A green and resilient North: 13.12 billion CFA francs

Part of the Team Europe Initiative "Green Deal and Resilience in Northern Cameroon", this programme takes a landscape approach: linking protected areas through forest-restoration zones, and promoting sustainable farming and pastoral practices that take the risk of community conflict into account. It rests on three pillars:

• stronger decentralised governance and better coordination of European partners;
• climate-smart agro-sylvo-pastoral management, where land for grazing is increasingly scarce;
• support for conservation actors protecting and developing hunting areas and national parks.

What they said

According to Ambassador Van Damme, the EU is proposing "an inclusive and integrated approach combining biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development". Minister Ousmane Mey said the two programmes mark Cameroon's official entry into the EU's Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). They follow the launch of the MIP in Garoua in February 2022, after consultations involving the government, Parliament, the private sector, civil society and European partners.

The signing was preceded by the twice-yearly review of the Cameroon–EU cooperation portfolio for 2022.

En bref (Français)

Le 4 octobre 2022 à Yaoundé, le ministre de l'Économie (MINEPAT) Alamine Ousmane Mey et l'ambassadeur de l'Union européenne Philippe Van Damme ont signé deux conventions de financement d'un montant total de 28,9 milliards de FCFA : « Villes vertes, inclusives et durables » (15,74 milliards, pour Yaoundé, Douala et Maroua) et « Septentrion vert et résilient » (13,12 milliards, pour la conservation de la nature et une économie verte dans le Nord). Elles marquent l'entrée du Cameroun dans l'instrument NDICI de l'UE.

Archive: first published 19 October 2022; edited for accuracy and clarity on 26 September 2026. · Watch Damian Maabo's environment documentaries

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