By Sonita Ngunyi Nwohtazie
The South West Regional Assembly which has been in existence for the last two years will be working on a budget of 3.9 billion FCFA for the year 2023, a slight increase as opposed to the 2022 budget which stood at FCFA of three billion two hundred million.
“We enacted close to 90 per cent of our project and we are very satisfied that the promise we made at the beginning of January 2021 at least we have matched the works and there are many more good things still to come in the year 2023,” said Bakoma Elango Zacheus, President of the South West Regional Assembly.
“Our budget for 2023 stands at 3.9 billion and we are going to have 3 million as our usual subsidy from the state of Cameroon and part of that money is also going to come from the sales of tender files including the sales from communal stamps which would be used in running the 2023 year,” Bakoma Elango Zacheus added.
Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai, the representative of the state of Cameroon, congratulated the regional assembly for achieving much in this period as the president of the assembly dwelt on the budget. He said: “Despite all sorts of discouragements to this regional assembly for some years now the actions of the assembly in the field clearly shows that the institution is capable of being the bedrock of development in the South West Region.”
“With all evidence of already executing about 90 projects in just less than two years, some of these projects included the construction of classrooms, administrative blocks, water catchments and some electrification projects among others,” Bernard Okalai Bilai added.
As the 2023 year is fast approaching, the South West Regional Assembly has already mapped out some sectors in the region in which development is going to begin. “We have already considered some sectors which include the health sector, and education. We are also thinking of potable water including all our six (6) Divisions because from the look of things Fako Division as of now is more developed than the others, so, we are going to strike a balance in these six divisions,” President Bakoma Elango emphasized.
During the session, Dr Ebenye Nange, a son of the South West and resident of Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States of America, donated some containers filled with medications and other medical equipment to be evenly distributed among the six divisions of the region.
“This is just the beginning of our partnership with the South West Regional Assembly because more is to come and we are ready to assist our health sector here in Cameroon especially to cater for the health needs of our population,” Dr Ebenye Nange said.
With this philanthropic gesture from Cameroonian health practitioners out of the country, the president of the South West Regional Assembly including Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai applauded the gesture. “With this gift from the Cameroonian diaspora in the United States of America, it would go a long way to boast and help our health sector, especially in the southwest region,” Bakoma Elango Zacheus, President of the South West Regional Assembly added.
It should be recalled that the Regional Assembly was one of the outcomes of the Major National Dialogue that sought to look for ways to end the violence in the country’s North West and South West Regions. The Regional Councillors were elected in 2020 and for the case of the South West and North West Regions; there was the reintroduction of the House of Chiefs. The Regional Councillors have been encouraged to be the first people to believe in the institution. The Regional Council which is a solution should not become a problem
