Speaking before the National Assembly, the Minister of Public Health has called for an increase in the amount of money allocated to his department to fight malaria.

“As part of the implementation of the latest strategic plan for the period 2021-2023, Cameroon has mobilised 132 billion CFAF out of the 232 billion CFAF needed to reduce this burden, leaving a shortfall of almost 100 billion CFAF,” Malachie Manaouda told parliament, explaining the prevalence of malaria in Cameroon. This was on the occasion of the Special Parliamentary Day on Malaria at the National Assembly.

In his speech, the Minister of Public Health called for an increase in the resources allocated to the fight against the disease. “Despite the efforts already made, the coverage of the population with preventive and curative interventions is still not optimal, partly due to inadequate funding”, the Minister told the elected representatives, a position supported by Honourable Njume Peter, who stressed that “the budget allocated to the Ministry of Public Health must be increased”. He referred to the 2001 Abuja Declaration, in which African governments pledged to spend 15% of their budgets on health. In Cameroon, however, the figure is only 4%.

However, Njume Peter advised the Minister of Health to allocate more resources from the current budget to the fight against malaria. Defending his ministry’s budget before the National Assembly in December, Minister Manaouda Malachie admitted that “despite the government’s declared desire to modernise our health system, the budgetary resources allocated to the health sector still fall short of international commitments, in particular the 2001 Abuja Declaration”.