On the side-lines of the visit to Cameroon of the Director General of the French Development Agency, Rémy Rioux, a Financing Agreement and three Notes of Intent were signed this Monday, 30 January 2023 in Garoua, between the Republic of Cameroon, the French Development Agency and the European Union.

The first financing instrument signed between the Director General of the French Development Agency Rémy Rioux and the Director General of SODECOTON, Mohamadou Bayero Bounou, relates to a non-sovereign loan of 30 million euros, worth 19.68 billion CFAF, to SODECOTON. The second joint commitment, for the benefit of Cameroon’s Cotton Development Corporation, is the signing of a Note of Intent for an amount of 10 million Euro, i.e. approximately 6.5 billion CFA francs, with a view to the granting of a subsidy from the European Union to ensure the energy transition of SODECOTON. The documents were signed by the Director General of the French Development Agency and the Representative of H.E. Philippe Mayaux, the Ambassador, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Cameroon. According to the Director General of the French Development Agency, these two financing instruments are intended for the modernisation of 9 SODECOTON factories in the North and Far North Regions; the construction of two new ginning factories; the equipping of five industrial sites with photovoltaic power plants with an installed capacity of 10 MW, to boost the energy transition. The third financing instrument signed on 30 January 2023 in Garoua by the Director General of the French Development Agency and the Representative of H.E. the Ambassador, Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Cameroon, relates to the signing of the Note of Intent for an amount of 6 million Euro, i.e. about FCFA 3.94 billion, intended for the “Team Europe Initiative”, for the financing of the “Green deal and resilience in North Cameroon”. The funding of this programme will allow for better coordination, supervision and deployment of inclusive, sustainable, profitable and environmentally friendly agro-pastoral activities. This will be done by promoting the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices adapted to climate change; and the implementation of agro-ecological practices responding to the challenges of adaptation to climate change, among others. The fourth joint commitment, relating to the Note of Intent signed by the Alamine Ousmane Mey , Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development and the Director General of the French Development Agency, is intended for the implementation of the second phase of the Agricultural Development: Commodity Value Chain Development Support Project (PADFA2). The funding of this project is expected to contribute to the reduction of poverty and the improvement of food and nutritional security meant for a target population. The objective is to sustainably increase the income and resilience of family farms producing rice and onions in the operational areas. It should be noted that these financial contributions, total amount of approximately CFAF 33.42 billion, will contribute to the implementation of NDS30 projects that fall under the agricultural sector strategy in the Adamawa, North and Far North regions. The signing ceremony of these Conventions and Memorandum of Intent was preceded by his presence. Alamine Ousmane Mey, the Governor of the Northern Region and senior officials from French Development Agency, the French Embassy in Cameroon and the European Union Delegation, paid a visit to the SODECOTON ginning plant, the livestock market that gained from the Debt Relief and Development Contract of the Urban Regional Capital Programme, the Garoua dairy, and the Technical School of Agriculture (ETA). The objective of this visit was to assess the level of implementation of these projects financed by these Development Partners.