Livestock and Fish Farming Value Chain Development: The NSIF, A Worthy Partner

On Wednesday 23 February 2022, the Director General signed a partnership agreement aimed at extending social security coverage to workers in the informal economy of the livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, animal and fish industries sub-sector, in order to facilitate their enrolment to voluntary and obligatory insurance in rural areas. 

The official signing ceremony of the conventions and support contracts for the Livestock and Fish Farming Value Chain Development Project (PDCVEP) was held at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel in the presence of Members of Government and stakeholders including the ILO, FEICOM, SODEPA, IRAD etc.

The total amount of the project is 65.11 billion CFA Francs. It is co-financed by the African Development Bank (ADB), which is the project's main donor and the Cameroon Government. The African Development Bank (ADB) is providing 85% of the financing while the Cameroon Government provides 15%. In the short term, the PDCVEP plans to ameliorate the competitiveness and hygiene of cattle, pig and fish products, as well as enhance stakeholders’ income and create new jobs in the three value chains.

  Within the framework of this project, the NSIF will guarantee social protection for numerous workers in the informal sector, thus, the importance of the partnership agreement between Noël Alain Olivier Mekulu Mvondo Akame, Top Manager of the NSIF and PCDVEP. The implementation cost of this partnership agreement amounts to 625,000,000 CFA Francs.

Concretely, the NSIF will organise sensitisation campaigns on voluntary and obligatory insurance for target groups. The NSIF will set-up social secretariats in at least 280 cooperatives and associations of producers, breeders and butchers and finally, register a large number of project beneficiaries in the voluntary insurance scheme.  

This is another significant step towards social protection and the improvement of the living conditions of workers in the informal sector in general and in the rural livestock and fish farming sector in particular.