Cameroon - Agricultural Value Chain Development Project

The Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (AVC-DP) is the mechanism for realizing the Cameroon’s vision of expanding its role as the agricultural locomotive of the Central African sub-region, embraced in 2009, which is outlined in the 2010-2020 Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP) that focuses on three pillars, namely: (i) growth, (ii) employment, and (iii) governance and strategic management of the State. The project will help to create wealth and employment, especially for the youth, as well as to boost food and nutritional security by enhancing the competitiveness of the three agricultural value chains (oil palm, banana and pineapple). The components and expected outcomes of the project are: (i) rural infrastructure development: 1,000 km of rural roads, 30 warehouses, 15 rural markets, 30 km of electricity networks, 30 drinking water supply (DWS) systems, a quality control laboratory for agricultural products; (ii) crop sector development: support for the establishment of processing units, institution building for farmer organizations, technical guidance, facilitation of the interface with service providers, training, research support for the production of quality seeds and seedlings, establishment of a crop sector development fund to finance value chains (VC); (iii) development of youth agricultural entrepreneurship: close to 600 businesses created in the agro-business sector for approximately 1,500 young graduates (40% being women) and ensuring access to credit; and (iv) project coordination and management. The net project cost is EUR 115.081 million (CFAF 75 488.829 million), jointly financed by the AfDB (77.6%), the Government (21.5%), and beneficiaries (0.9%). The total project duration is five years.