The government of Cameroon has rehabilitated the South West Development Authority, SOWEDA for the first time since its creation. The rehabilitation package was worth almost FCFA 4,000,000,000.

28 years after its creation, The South West Development Authority (SOWEDA) was ripe for a facelift. The institutional and organizational structures had become a mismatch with present day functioning.  It is with this in mind that the government of Cameroon set up a program to rehabilitate and modernize SOWEDA. This led to the birth of a rehabilitation package coined ‘Contrat-Plan’, signed between the State and SOWEDA on 14 December 2015. It was scheduled to run for a period of 3 years, from 2016 – 2018 but was later to extended to run from 2016 – 2019.

The total amount of the rehabilitation package stood at FCFA 3 761 253 253 (three billion seven hundred and sixty one million two hundred and fifty three thousand two hundred and fifty three francs). The lion share of the budget was provided by the Ministry of Finance to the tune of FCFA. 2,951,253,253. FCFA 722,000,000 was received from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development while SOWEDA contributed FCFC 88,000,000.

The restructuring exercise was implemented under 5 different axes.

First, the Institutional Axis. This endows SOWEDA with a legal institutional framework, to enable it adapt the institutional framework to its missions, and ensure the conformity of its statutes with current legislations.

The Organizational Axis on the other hand provides SOWEDA with an efficient organizational working structure and permits the putting in place of an Organization and Staffing Plan (POE) in order to elaborate its organizational chart as well as a manual of procedures, and equally carry out the adaptation of job profiles to available positions in the establishment.

As far as the Operational Axis is concerned, this reinforces the abilities of the population through building the capacities of cooperative managers, creation and training of road and water management committees and securing seed multiplication centres.

The Technical Axis provides SOWEDA with adequate infrastructures and equipment in order to empower it with infrastructures and equipment that are indispensable for the realization of its statutory missions.

Finally, the Financial and Accounting Axis allows SOWEDA to update its accounting system and improve its financial situation, permitting that the accounts of the establishment are aligned with current legislation, and increase its self-generated income. 

It is now thanks to the rehabilitation plan that the text of creation, a new organigram and a manual of procedures have been updated or elaborated as the case may be, amongst others.

On the list of significant acquisitions enabled by the rehabilitation project are amongst others, 02 Bulldozers, 01 front-end loader and 03 agricultural tractors. Three seed multiplication centres now exist in Fako, Manyu and Kupe-M. Divisions and two training centres in Kumba and Mamfe curtsey of the Contract Plan.

It is clear that the much needed rehabilitation plan has come to ease day to day functioning and activities at SOWEDA. The South West Development Authority and the people of the South West Region thank the government of Cameroon for this welcomed change.