A decree fixing the distribution of the General Decentralisation Fund for the 2016 fiscal year has been issued by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang, who is also Chair of the National Decentralisation Board. A major feature of the FCFA 10 billion fund is the inclusion of the remuneration due municipal executives as decided by the Head of State, Paul Biya, in an earlier decree dated September 16, 2015.

Under the 2016 General Decentralisation Fund, the January 26, 2016 decree fixes the operating allocation at FCFA 5 billion while the remaining half is for investment. The remuneration of municipal authorities is the most important operating expenditure with FCFA 3 billion while the rest will cover operating expenditure for organs involved with various aspects of the decentralisation process. These include the National Decentralisation Board, the Inter-ministerial Committee for Local Government Services and the National Committee for Local Government Finances, amongst others. On the other hand, the investment allocation of FCFA 5 billion will be disbursed for projects concerning construction, rehabilitation or equipment of social infrastructure such as classrooms, rest-houses, health centres as well as water supply and electrification projects.

The January 26, 2016 decree comes to materialise President Paul Biya’s promise to improve on the working conditions of municipal authorities whose key roles in ensuring better living standards for local population cannot be over-emphasised. According to the September 16, 2015 decree, the monthly remuneration includes a basic monthly salary which amounts to FCFA 400,000 (~ $676.30) for government delegates, FCFA 250,000 (~ $422.69) for mayors, FCFA 200,000 (~ $338.15) for deputy government delegates and FCFA 150,000 (~ $253.61) for deputy mayors.