Extension Of Social Security: Implementation Underway

The Social Insurance Institution of Cameroon has taken part in the reflection on the proposed guidelines for the extension of social security to workers in the informal economy.  

The working session from the 28^th to the 30^th of November 2022 at the Regional Directorate for the Littoral and South West of the NSIF in Douala brought together high-level experts from CIPRES, MINTSS, and the Social Insurance Funds of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, and Senegal. The meeting was chaired by Cheikh Tidiane TOUNKARA, President of the Social Security Supervisory Commission, and President of the Extraordinary Committee of Experts. The purpose of these meetings was to propose guidelines on the extension of social security to workers in the informal economy for the Member States of the Inter-African Conference on Social Security (CIPRES).

The chair of the session emphasized the importance and urgency of the document expected to be submitted to the examination of the Committee of Experts during the month of December 2022 “this meeting is part of my missions and at the strategic level, drafting guidelines to ensure the effectiveness of citizenship rights in terms of security of workers in the informal sector.  Also, I am optimistic given the political will shown by all the member states of CIPRES to ensure the social coverage of this segment, the most important part of the active population of the zone”.

 The Working Group thus decided to use the ISSA guidelines on administrative solutions for the extension of social security to develop those of CIPRES. The host of the meeting, Noel Alain Olivier Mekulu Mvondo Akame, DG of the NSIF of Cameroon “hailed the decisive contribution of our Institution in its proactive involvement for the effective extension of social security coverage to workers in the informal economy in the CIPRES zone”.  At the end of these exchanges, seven main axes were identified in order to determine the priority actions to be implemented for the extension of the existing schemes to the non-covered populations and the creation of a scheme meeting the expectations of the workers of the informal economy.

The document produced at the end of the work defines solutions likely to improve or extend access to social security for workers in the informal economy. It will thus strengthen the capacities of the Social Insurance Institutions or the competent administrations to offer effective contributory programmes and work towards extending social coverage to this population segment.