AfDB boosts livestock and fish farming in Cameroun with €84 million

Livestock and fish farming got a boost in Cameroun as the African Development Bank (AfDB) recently partnered with the government of Cameroun to improve the sector. While AfDB is extending a loan of €84 million, the government is supporting with €15.27 million.

The gesture is in line with the Bank’s strategies to raise household incomes and create jobs by increasing the production of livestock and fish in the central African country.

The loan which will lend support to the improvements of farming of fish, pork and beef productions, will also bear significantly on the reduction of poverty, improvement of infrastructure in rural areas, as well as food and nutrition in the country.

The project, as approved by the Board, will specifically aim at raising quality standards and competitiveness in key livestock value chains such as genetics improvement, conservation, transportation, feeding, slaughter and processing. As for fish production, emphasis will be on conservation, processing, rearing and storage.

While the project has a national scope, the Cameroon government has identified three main target areas; the North-West for production and Central and Coastal for consumption. The impact of the cross-cutting actions involved will, however, be felt in the other regions of the country as well.

Key beneficiaries of the project will be stockbreeders and their cooperatives who constitute 45% of the pastoral sector labour force; fish farmers, input producers and sellers, traders, women wholesale fishmongers and processing operators. In addition, up to 350 higher education graduates will be trained and settled as business leaders.