A workshop was organised on Tuesday, 28 February 2023 in Yaounde at the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development.

Chaired by the Director General of the Economy and Public Investment Programming, Mr. Isaac Tamba, this workshop aimed at strengthening the capacities of government officials in charge of investment project maturation, in order to control costs and prepare for future operations, as well as maintenance and sustainability of facilities. Specifically, these proceeding were intended to officially launch project maturation activities as prescribed in the decree setting the State’s budgetary calendar; introduce reforms undertaken since 2018 on the maturation and perspectives of project preparation and endorsement; and sensitise participants on the process of maturation of projects in PPP mode.
The Director General of the Economy and Public Investment Programming opened the meeting by commending the progress made in the preparation of investment projects in Cameroon, namely the setting up of internal project maturation commissions at the central level in ministries, companies and public establishments; the functioning of the inter-ministerial technical committee of experts in charge of project maturation and the issuing of maturity visas. At the local level, the setting up of regional meetings in charge of evaluating maturation of projects of the LRAs and devolved services of the State. According to Mr. Isaac Tamba, these initiatives have contributed to a significant improvement in the physical execution rate of the public investment budget, raising it from 76.36% in 2018 to 92.36% in 2020.
Despite this improvement however, certain difficulties remain and continue to hinder the process of project maturation. These are essentially the near absence of capacity building sessions for actors involved in the project maturation process in administrations, the poor understanding of the role of state engineers by project owners, inadequate allocation of resources devoted to the functioning of project maturity review bodies, the cumbersome nature of granting maturity visas on an exceptional basis, and insufficient dissemination of laws on project maturation, among others. Recommendations were made to address these constraints.