The North West Regional Executive Council has tabled a 2024 draft budget for scrutiny to its members and more especially to the committee of Finance.
The budget balanced in income and expenditure at 5 billion, 621 million will see 2 billion, 714 million used for investment projects.
Top amongst which is the setting up of the custom clearence centre in Bamenda that will see the removal of goods and services in Bamenda instead of Douala as it is today.
The assembly also seeks to limit post harvest waste by transforming agricultural products and setting up of storage facilities.
The opening of the December session, the 13th since the creation of the Assembly saw the presentation of the report of the Peace and Development Initiative, aimed at using the High intensive Labour Approach in the realization of projects, has seen most Divisios approaching 100 percent and the youth that took part are being paid.
The peace and Development Initiative will enter its second phase in 2024 with a new dimension of transforming lives in the communities and empowering the young people.
To this end, the session witnessed a presentation from Dieudonne Tantoh Nforba popularly known as farmer Tantoh on Environmental Impact opportunities and climate change.
He spoke to the members of the house of representatives on the possibility of ensuring that communities have portable drinking water, eco-friendly trees, beautiful gardens through the "vulgarisation" of horticulture.
In 2024, Farmer Tantoh through his program known as The Farmer Tantoh Mass Movement, will see the empowering of some young persons with motorbikes and a monthly stipend of 100,000 Francs to plant carpet grass in homes in towns and villages of the North West.
His dream is to partner with the assembly to develop water catchment and other eco-friendly activities around the North West Region.
Speaking as he officially opened the session, Prof Fru Angwafo III, President of the Assembly stated emphatically that the budget though witnessing an increase is insufficient to meet the development challenges of the region.
"For us to meet the challenges of the North West Development plan, we need an annual budget of at least 26 billion Francs CFA. This means we have to set up the North West Development and Investment Fund to meet our challenges" Prof Angwafo III said.
To better ensure that the economy of the region is buoyant, the regional assembly members were thrilled to a presentation on youth empowerment through start-ups from Edison Fru Ndi, Regional Delegate of the Chamber of Commerce.
While the various committees go to scrutinize the budget, ensuring that it is representative and covers matured projects, keen interest is attached to the formula that the assembly will use in the recruitment of its first ever staff, three years after creation.
The December session that is dedicated to the examination and adoption of the 2024 budget will run from the 11th December through to the 13th December 2023.
By
Ndi Tsembom Elvis
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