By Walter Wilson Nana & Ernest Sumelong
The General Manager of the Southwest Development Agency, SOWEDA, Dr. Andrew Eneme Ngome, has stated that the agency implement projects.
SOWEDA GM:Eneme
Eneme was addressing the press after the 16th Session of the SOWEDA
Board of Directors meeting, which took place in camera Friday, December
7 at the SOWEDA Boardroom, Buea.
"SOWEDA does not go out to implement, we use executing institution
agencies and these include; the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural
Development, the Ministry of Livestock,
Fisheries and Animal Industries, CCSP (major producer of agricultural seedlings in the area of export crops; cocoa and coffee seedlings), IRAD (where we get the planting materials from them), the involvement of micro credit schemes such as GASBY, CAMCUL, CAPCOL, MC2 and the Yaounde-based MIFED that carries out the studies on the ground and advice the local communities on the way forward on how to generate more resources," Eneme said.
The General Manager highlighted the agency's 2008 budget as seen from two independent projects they supervise; the Rumpi and Livestock projects.Said Eneme, "Rumpi has more than FCFA 6 billion.
This is because they carry forward to the next budgetary year the money that was not spent in the previous year's budget. Hence, you will feel that SOWEDA has a lot of money. No. It is not possible for a small institution like ours to consume 7 or 8 billion in a year even if you have been carrying out infrastructural works in the province.
Therefore, our budget for 2008 is FCFA 8.5 billion. SOWEDA has in that chunk FCFA 700 million and the Livestock Project FCFA 1 billion and FCFA 6 billion is for Rumpi."The General Manager revealed that some components of the Livestock Project will round off for 2007 while the micro-finance aspect will continue to float.
"They give out micro-credits to our actors in the field; farmers, fishermen, the completion and equipment of the Barombi-Kang Fish Station, where we hope to start producing fingerlings for fish farmers," Eneme said.
He said Rumpi's initial problems are now issues of the past and a mid-term evaluation mission is currently going on in Bamenda in collaboration with the African Development Bank, ADB, funding body from Tunis, Tunisia and the government of Cameroon.
"That mid-term evaluation will give us a guideline as to the re-orientation of the activities of the Rumpi Project. After three years, we need to give impetus to other areas of the project; infrastructure, agricultural sectors; food and export crops," he noted.
The SOWEDA boss pointed the slow disbursement of financial credits, the inconsistencies of when finances are available, as some of the major challenges they faced in 2007.In an address to the Board of Directors the SOWEDA Board Chairperson, Noah Mbongo Molongo, said he implored SOWEDA's General Manager to guarantee clarity and transparency in his management.
"He shall ensure that the procedures of government and funding partners are respected before payments are authorised. The presence of a Finance Controller, Accounting Officer and Stores Accountant in SOWEDA should provide a solid foundation on which these procedures should be respected and applied," he prescribed.
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