Cameroon gets $4.8M South Korea grant to advance civil registration modernization project

Cameroon’s Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, recently signed an agreement with the government of South Korea totalling XAF 23.21 billion (US$38 million) for the execution of five development projects in the country.

Part of the funds will be channeled to the next phase of an ongoing project to upgrade and digitize the country’s civil status registration system.

Ousman Mey signed the agreement on behalf of Cameroon, while the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Cameroon, Nam Ki-wook, appended his signature for his country.

Cameroon is fully on a journey to digitize its civil status registration system and several actions have been taken in this regard. Already, a pilot using the OpenCRVS platform for birth registration in 20 municipal councils of the country has been completed, and a new course of action is awaited. In May, the country held a national forum of mayors to discuss hindrances to civil status registration.

Ousmane Mey said $4.8 million out of the $38 million grant will be deployed to subsequent activities of the project which seeks to set up a robust, efficient and secure foundational identity system for the country.

A project in Cameroon dubbed the “Support Program for the Modernization of the Civil Registration System” (PAMEC) is supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and it is within that framework that this latest grant funding from Korea has been made available, said the Ambassador. The project also has the financial support of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

While underlining that the funding agreement underpins the good state of relations between the two countries, the diplomat urged the government of Cameroon to implement the project in a transparent and accountable manner.

Another digital project to benefit from the financing, according to the partners, is the second phase of a program to digitize Cameroon’s public contracts procurement system, known as “e-Procurement System Development Project.” This project, to get $5.6 million from the package, is a continuation of efforts by the country to simplify procurement procedures of public contracts by enhancing transparency and efficiency.

A “Smart Campus” project is also part of the lot, according to Ousmane Mey, and will get $8 million from the grant. He says the project seeks to promote digital government efforts in the public administration and modernize service delivery in the public service.

Apart from these three projects related to digital, the two others to benefit from the Korean financing have to do with the provision of potable water schemes in four council areas, and the strengthening of the country’s emergency medicines management system.

Article Topics

Africa  |  birth registration  |  Cameroon  |  civil registration  |  CRVS  |  digital identity  |  South Korea