During the 2nd annual session of the Western Regional Council held from October 17 to 18, the members of this body were forced to carry out a collective budget.
The envelope of 5.1 billion FCFA for the current year was reduced by 500 million FCFA. Indeed, when the 2024 budget was adopted a year ago, a provision of 590 million FCFA had been projected for a project to acquire civil engineering engines. However, the President of the Western Regional Council, Jules Hilaire Foka Foka, declared that “to date, zero francs” had been received. This led to the need for a collective budget to revise downward the annual envelope of the Council before the end of the year and the adoption of a new budget.
The members of the Council have already been informed that the 2024 budget envelope will be renewed next year. An envelope deemed insufficient by President Foka Foka, who added that the envelope often allocated to them is “too narrow”. “This time, there is no exact amount on what will be granted. It could be very difficult”, he warned the regional councillors who are keen to obtain funding for projects in their department. Despite the narrowness of the envelope, the Regional Council wishes to carry out certain projects, in particular the creation of a Regional Development Company for the West and the establishment of a Regional Tourism Office for the West.
Concerning infrastructure, the President of the Council recalled that, since last year, several large-scale projects in the energy sector have been selected. “Their maturation is complete and the partners are mobilized. We await implementation with the support of the public authorities. »
It should be recalled that the Regional Councils were set up in 2020 for a five-year term. There is only one left for the current regional executives before renewal elections scheduled for December 2025.
SBBC