Polycarpe Abah Abah

Minister of Economy and Finance Cameroon

When budget controls evaporated in the lead-up to the 2004 election in Cameroon, the country fell foul of its IMF programme, in the process missing the completion point of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and losing the chance of debt relief.

Not long after the elections, Polycarpe Abah Abah was appointed finance minister, a move credited with stopping the country’s fiscal slippage in its tracks.

As if disciplining a naughty school boy, the IMF had demanded Cameroon agree to an unfunded staff-monitored programme, designed to get public finances back under control. The IMF stick is seldom popular but Mr Abah Abah delivered, and in October the IMF authorised a new three-year loan deal for the country. More significantly, it means Cameroon is back on course to get the IMF’s endorsement that its reform programme is on track, which in turn means debt relief is back in reach.

With a swashbuckling attack on corruption, Mr Abah Abah has not been afraid to tread on toes. Late-arriving government workers have been locked out of premises while an audit of finance ministry staffers found signs of fraud and other crimes. A history of corruption and a lack of transparency have besmirched an otherwise impressive track-record of growth and relative economic stability.

The emphasis is now on fiscal sustainability, with the balance on government spending (excluding foreign aid) set to go into surplus going forward. That said, Mr Abah Abah has indicated he can still find room for a meaningful increase in public-sector investment spending on infrastructure, such as electricity and transport, from current levels of 2% of GDP to 3.8% by 2010.

There will be little respite for Mr Abah Abah. A long list of structural reforms await, including the restructuring and privatisation of public enterprises. But he shows the appetite to tackle them, confirming plans to privatise the state-owned airline, water utility and telecoms companies in 2006.

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