For the launch in the regions of Cameroon of the phase of awareness, information and training relating to the Producers’ Desk – whose digital will be a key element – the choice of the West region is not accidental according to Samuel Donatien NENGUE, Administrator of  CCODEF.

« Before independence, he explains at the beginning of his speech, the territory that covers the current West region was specialized in the production of coffee, before gradually opening up to the cultivation of cocoa, to become one of the main production basins in Cameroon today ».

The choice of the capital city of the West region therefore clearly aims to value the production of cocoa and coffee of this land particularly rich in opportunities and to increase the yields in quantity and quality.

« Implemented on the high instruction of the President of the Republic and officially launched in Yaoundé on July 08, 2021 by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Minister of Trade, the Producers’ Desk aims to revolutionize the Cocoa and Coffee sectors through digital engineering », said the pilot of this innovative system. 

Mr. NENGUE went on to stress that « digital technology is the DNA of this new funding mechanism; because it is the digital application developed by CCODEF and installed free of charge in the smartphone of the user that should allow the producer to self-identify, to geolocate his plot, connect it to the general data base in the Platform and characterize his orchard by counting the number of trees. This application, said the Administrator, provides an interactive relationship between the producer, the bank, the input supplier and CCODEF ».

However, and despite the main role of technology, it is the producer who is at the heart of the mechanism, because he is the one who integrates the system by self-identifying through the dedicated application, opening his account in a bank or micro finance institution of his choice, constituting his financial reserve and triggering the order of inputs constituting his subsidy.

The Administrator of CCODEF went on to salute the remarkable efforts of the various bodies, collaborators and partners of the Fund for the work done. Among the latter, he insisted, « the strategic partner EDENRED occupies a place of choice; he who intends to format the application of the Producers’ Desk and facilitates its functioning ». Banks and microfinance institutions are not left behind to guarantee financial transactions, nor are mobile phone companies and money transfer companies to ensure instantaneity, let alone IDH, which intends to put into play an additional offer of financing, that could allow producers to access credits in traditional financial institutions.

To conclude, Samuel Donatien NENGUE stressed that « the Producers’ Desk is an experimental mechanism whose Cocoa and Coffee sub-sectors constitute the test sample because of their attractiveness ». It could therefore, according to the Administrator, « extend to all the agricultural sectors of Cameroon and thus give substance to the second-generation agriculture called with all his wishes by the President of the Republic, at the time of the Ebolowa Agro-pastoral Show ».

The Editorial Staff