SOWEDA Board of Directors adopt over 2.6 billion for 2026.

The over 2.6 billion FCFA adopted represents a 14.5% drop from the 2025 Budget. The Board Chair, Ediage Apande Herbert, told members that the drop in the budget was the result of the Framework Agreement signed between SOWEDA and the Emergency Project to Combat Food Crisis in Cameroon, PULCCA. 

The 2026 budget will target projects in key areas such as governance and institutional support in the agricultural and rural sector, improvement of the infrastructural environment and access to factors of production and markets. 

He said it will also strive to strengthen the resilience of agricultural production systems to climate change, food and nutritional security of rural populations, farm to market roads and the provision of social amenities. 

The Board Chair said this will ensure the improvement of productivity, production, and competiveness in the agricultural sector and the development of livestock production and animal industries across the region.

The Board Chair explained that the drop in revenue was caused by the fact that management did the budgeting with no expectation of income from the ministries of agriculture, that of livestock, public works, the Autonomous Income and Cocoa Tax and the Presidential Plan for Reconstruction and Development (PPRD-NW/SW) because of the unpredictability of such funding.

The meeting followed deliberations by the two Standing Committees of the institution, which did an in-depth examination of the documents submitted by management ahead of the board meeting.

The Audit Committee looked at the budget, while the Development Committee on its part was updated on the level of execution of on-going development projects, files undergoing maturation procedures and partnership perspectives like the Kupe-Muanenguba Holding project and the second phase of AIVDP.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, the Board Chair explained that 2025 had been a tedious year for SOWEDA activities.

He said in addition to the usual problems of insecurity, subvention from the government has become scarcer as materialized by the fact that no disbursements have been made to date. 

Given the shortfall in revenue streams, he said the management of the institution had done a great job in keeping the boat afloat in the midst of such a tempest. 

In 2026, he said there was more promise in the horizon as the establishment looks to nurse the hope of entering into more partnerships to alleviate the shortfall from government subvention.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3657 of Tuesday December 16, 2025