By Synthia Lateu
Presidential candidate Cabral Libii has outlined how he plans to raise up to 500 billion FCFA in state coffers immediately after being elected President of the Republic.
Speaking as a guest on a recent Bnews TV program, the presidential hopeful explained that his strategy begins with ending low-profit projects, a move he says would save the state at least 200 billion FCFA. He added that his government could generate another 200 billion FCFA in no time simply by reforming the functioning of the state.
“If I tackle the issue of subsidies in this country money that we inject into unproductive thing, I generate at least 100 billion. That brings me to 500 billion,” Libii said, emphasizing his commitment to redirecting resources into more productive sectors.
According to Libii, Cameroon’s most promising sector is the agro-pastoral sector, which he described as a natural endowment. Despite having 7.2 million hectares of arable land, the country struggles to exploit even 20% of it. He cited countries in Asia and Europe as examples, noting that they utilize up to 90% of their arable land.
Unveiling his transformation plan, Libii pledged to put into operation at least 600,000 hectares of arable land per year. “In five years, we will have developed at least half of our potential farmland. This will allow us to fully enter what we call industrial transformation,” he said, expressing confidence that he will be Cameroon’s next president.
In a recent interview with RFI, Libii also vowed to recover the 11.7 billion FCFA that Glencore agreed to pay after plundering Cameroonian oil for a decade. He blamed the current delay on corruption by some public officials preventing the recovery of the funds.
He further announced that once elected, his government would allocate two billion FCFA to each municipality in Cameroon to tackle urgent needs: road infrastructure, hospital equipment, digital and educational development, as well as food security.
Amid growing calls for an opposition coalition ahead of the presidential elections, Libii dismissed the idea as “not a priority for the country.” However, when asked about his earlier calls for a coalition of opposition candidates such as Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma Bakary, he clarified that the push made sense given Cameroon’s electoral history.
“Statistically, since 1992, the top three candidates in every presidential election have received more than 95% of the votes,” he explained. Libii added that he has called on the three septuagenarian candidates, including Akere Muna, to come together first, arguing that this would reduce confusion among voters, especially since two of them come from the same division and even the same village.
