The bills were endorsed during a plenary chaired by the Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji.

The night of April 6, 2016 was definitely long for members of the Senate as they stayed awake to scrutinize and adopt three more bills forwarded to the Senate by the National Assembly for second reading.

Wednesday’s night plenary sitting at the Yaounde Conference Centre was chaired by Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji.

The three more bills adopted includes the bill on tourism and leisure activities in Cameroon, the bill to ratify the Ordinance of 23 December 2015 to amend and supplement some provisions of 23 December 2014 Law: Finance Law of the Republic of Cameroon for the 2015 Financial year and the bill to authorize the President of the Republic to proceed with Cameroon’s accession to the African Charter on Statistics, adopted on 3 February 2009 in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia.

The three bills were defended in committee and plenary respectively by the Minister of State, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Bello Bouba Maïgari, Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey and the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations in charge of Relations with the Commonwealth, Chief Dr. Dion Ngute.

The bill on tourism and leisure activities in Cameroon seeks to correct shortfalls of the 1998 Law as the development of the sector still faces many difficulties.

Excessive and inappropriate fines, disproportion between sanctions and violations marred the sector and encouraged clandestine tourist establishments.

The new law will ease conditions for carrying out tourist activities, identify measures aimed at controlling clandestine activities as well as encourage competitiveness in tourist and leisure activities.

Security measures are also part of the new legal instrument which will contribute to developing the sector considered vital for economic recovery.

As for the amendment of some provisions of the 2015 Finance Law, it emerged that it was necessitated by certain events such as the renewal of licenses of two mobile telephone companies which generated more revenue, the restructuring of the National Refining Company (SONARA), the start of Three- Emergency Plan and 2016/2019 African Cup of Nations preparations all had a bearing on the initial 2015 State budget.

The members of government concerned provided further explanations to questions that ensued from the plenary.

The African charter bill on statistics underscores statistics as an indispensable tool for decision-making process.