Cameroon’s Far North Program Shows Gaps in Budget and Financing Figures

The Cameroonian government has reported two different budget execution rates for 2025 for the Special Reconstruction and Development Program for the Far North, PSRDREN: 59% in the final statement issued by the program’s steering committee and 63.8% in a report from the Economy Ministry, MINEPAT. The 4.8-percentage-point gap is not explained.

Signed by Economy Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey and published on September 11, 2026, in Cameroon Tribune, the statement reports a 59% financial execution rate alongside a 68% physical execution rate. The same figures were reported by Mutations on September 4. MINEPAT’s September 1 report gives a 63.8% execution rate alongside an 88% contract award rate. Neither document states whether the execution rate refers to commitments, expenditure authorizations or actual payments.

An Unclear Budget Base

On February 20, 2025, the committee approved a CFAF 11.3 billion budget, including CFAF 2.4 billion for operating expenses and CFAF 8.9 billion for investment. In its March 3 report, PSRDREN also referred to a proposed additional CFAF 16.6 billion, without later confirming whether the additional amount was approved. The September publications do not specify the budget base used to calculate the execution rates.

Applied to the CFAF 11.3 billion budget, the two rates would correspond to CFAF 6.67 billion and CFAF 7.21 billion, a difference of CFAF 542 million. That calculation is only indicative. The approved 2026 budget of CFAF 37.3 billion is not broken down by project, funding source or expenditure category. It exceeds the initial 2025 allocation by CFAF 26 billion, or 3.3 times, an increase of 230%, but the comparison would change if the additional allocation had been incorporated.

From CFAF 92.9 Billion to CFAF 119.63 Billion

Point 6 of the statement says CFAF 92.9 billion in external financing was mobilized in 2025. Point 8 gives a figure of CFAF 119.63 billion, including CFAF 93.02 billion provided by the African Development Bank, AfDB, through loans and a grant, and CFAF 26.61 billion lent by the Islamic Development Bank, IsDB. Those two amounts add up to CFAF 119.63 billion, but the gap between the two totals is CFAF 26.73 billion. The IsDB financing therefore still leaves a CFAF 120 million difference. The statement does not say whether the second amount is annual or cumulative.

The IsDB loan is described as approved, although the conditions required for it to become effective are still being completed. It therefore cannot be treated as financing that is already effective, available and disbursed.

Coverage of the meeting published by Cameroon Tribune on September 1 attributes CFAF 142.2 billion in loans and CFAF 3.79 billion in grants to the AfDB, for a total of CFAF 145.99 billion. That is CFAF 52.97 billion more than the amount stated in the committee statement. The periods or components may differ, but the sources do not define them.

For the IsDB, its board approved €36.66 million ($43 million) on December 13, 2025, for Cameroon’s sustainable irrigation and agricultural value-chain development project. At the fixed exchange rate of CFAF 655.957 to the euro, that equals CFAF 24.05 billion, CFAF 2.56 billion less than the CFAF 26.61 billion reported by PSRDREN, with no published explanation.

Nearly CFAF 800 Billion Announced, With No Disbursement Breakdown

The presidential plan is estimated to cost CFAF 1.822 trillion. The amount the government describes as mobilized rose from more than CFAF 600 billion in February 2025 to nearly CFAF 800 billion at the August 31, 2026, meeting. Arithmetically, the latter amount covers about 44% of the estimated cost and leaves roughly CFAF 1.02 trillion still to be secured.

That figure does not represent cash actually available to the program. No table separates financing that has been sought, approved, signed, become effective, disbursed and spent. The inclusion of the IsDB loan, which is not yet effective, confirms that “mobilized” does not necessarily mean available.

The committee acknowledges budget and payment delays, as well as climate and security constraints. It calls for compliance with the rules governing the special fund for economically distressed areas, stronger security arrangements for projects near the Nigerian border and additional administrative posts, without providing a timetable.

The review cites schools, health centers, small-scale water supply systems and the Mora-Waza-Dabanga-Kousséri, Magada-Kaélé-Guidiguis, Moutourwa-Maroua and Maroua-Bogo-Guirvidig-Pouss roads. MINEPAT says ongoing operations include 20 small-scale water supply systems, five integrated health centers and seven primary schools, as well as 10,000 school desks distributed, without specifying for each project what has been completed, formally accepted by the authorities or paid for.

The next session is scheduled to take place in Maroua, with site visits and meetings with beneficiaries. No date has been given, and the committee does not state whether the 59% or 63.8% rate will be used as the benchmark for assessing 2026.

B.E