At Islamic Dev´t Bank Day: PM hails Bank´s contribution to Cameroon´s development.

He voiced the praises in Yaounde Monday, during an occasion to mark the Islamic Development Day in Cameroon. IsDB Group delegation at the event was led by the Group Vice President, H.E Dr Rami Ahmad.

Dion Ngute emphasised that the Islamic Development Bank Group has proven to be a reliable partner in promoting Cameroon´s development since it was created. 

Through its numerous interventions, he noted that the IsDB Group has recorded remarkable achievement all over the country in vital economic and social sectors that include energy supply, agriculture promotion, education, health, infrastructure development, private sector stimulation, industrialisation, import substitution, among others. 

This, he disclosed, is in a bid to push forward the national development strategy document, SND-30 and President Biya´s aspiration to bring the country to the status of an emerging nation by 2035.

IsDB’s key areas of intervention 

Dion Ngute traced the arrival of the Bank Group in the country immediately after it was created in 1981; when the Board of Directors of the new institution approved the first financial allocation for the construction of the first hydroelectric power dam in Cameroon, at Songloulou.

He said after Songloulou, the Bank funded the Limbe shipyard project, supported energy and industrial infrastructure by providing reliable transport linkages between communities in the country and linking trade corridors to neighbouring countries and the wider world. 

Dion Ngute cited the Bachenga-Ngaoundere corridor and opening of the Ngaoundere-Tibati corridor. He also mentioned the Bank´s rural electrification programme, which is helping many homes in the Adamawa, Centre, North, West and South Regions. 

He also detailed that the Bank provided over 247 kilometres of energy distribution lines, covering 102 villages, and touching 294,175 Cameroonians who now have access to reliable electricity.

Simultaneously, Dion said the Bank embarked on providing technical education as a means of empowering youth and women, so that they can get access to lucrative jobs, and realise their potential. 

The PM also credited the Bank with the irrigation of 214 hectares of land, providing 42 boreholes, improving 240 kilometres of rural roads and training more than 20,000 farmers.

He said the bank helped to build health centres and school blocks. The Bank’s agricultural development projects, he said, helpedin doubling rice yields in areas of its intervention, added to increasing incomes of beneficiaries and improving rural lives.

He said the financial institution has also helped to train no fewer than 454 fodder producers to improve productivity and increased resilience. 

The PM said partnership between Cameroon and IsDB Group is anchored on unlocking opportunities for present and future generations.

Enter bank official 

The IsDB Group Vice President, H.E Dr Rami Ahmad, used the event to deliver lectures to local stakeholders in different specialties of the bank.

Lectures touched on Islamic cooperation for the development of the private sector; international Islamic trade and finance cooperation and Islamic cooperation for the insurance of investment and export credit.

It also handled the plans to impact, from financing and delivering Cameroon´s National Development Strategy, 2020-2030; among other topical issues.

Dr Rami Ahmad, told participants that the Group has introduced an Islamic Concessional Finance window, aimed at providing relief for debt financing. 

He said the Bank does not want a situation where borrowers suffer from debt distress because of excessive load on debt servicing. 

As far as climate finance is concerned, he said the Bank will not go with the flow, as countries of the Northern Hemisphere who clamour for contributions to be made to climate finance are themselves not forthcoming. 

He stressed that the Bank´s strategy is to first of all see and access the climate needs of a given country before deciding whether to provide funding or not. 

He said lectures for developing countries to adopt clean energy cannot be swallowed hook and sinker, when countries of the north have benefitted from these cheap sources of energy for over 50 years.

The Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, said the Bank has contributed enormously towards diversifying agriculture in Cameroon.

Minister Ousmane Mey who doubles as IsDB President in Cameroon and CEMAC, said the Bank’s diverse interventions are aimed at enabling Cameroon play its key role as the prime mover of economic activities in the CEMAC sub region. 

About the Bank 

The IsDB has presence in 57 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Virtually all of the member States are classified as developing nations, facing similar challenges, and adhering to Islamic standards of financing. There are also members of the international organisation of Islamic countries.

The Bank, in the coming years, has already drawn its Country Framework for Cameroon, covering the period 2027-2029. The framework will, for the next three years, focuses on helping Cameroon speed up the actualisation of the aspirations embedded in the SND-30 national strategic development document.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3910 of Tuesday September 15, 2026