Limbe II Council Budgets FCFA One Billion For 2008

By Christopher Ambe Shu

The newly created Limbe II Council of the Southwest of Cameroon, will work with FCFA one billion as its budget this year, a budget that has been described as ambitious. But Limbe II Mayor ,Andrew Motanga Monjimba, in his speech at the second ordinary and budgetary session ,which took place in the Limbola Community Hall last December 27 said, “At first sight the budget looks unrealistic but operating as an ordinary council and with hard work this budget is very realistic”. The 25 councilors of the municipality proudly adopted the one billion as their 2008 budget, of which 463 million (43.6%) is allotted for investment and 537 million (56.4%) for recurrent expenditure.
The joint council session was presided at by Bernard Okalia,SDO for Fako.He reminded the council of its mission and stressed need for meaningful development and poverty-alleviation projects.
Limbe II Council (carved out from former Limbe Urban Council) is made up of villages such as Botaland, Wovia,Mokunda,Ngeme,Mokundange and Batoke. After the July 22, 2007 municipal elections, the council took off on 1 August 2007 with the installation of the mayor and his deputies. The operation of the council was made possible thanks to a financial package of FCFA 30 million received from the State as subvention and an extra FCFA 9 million from the mother council .Limbe 2 Council has an estimated population of 40,000 people and is where SONARA and the Limbe Shipyard project are found.

According to Mayor Andrew Motanga, his top priority projects to execute will be the supply of pipe-borne water in some villages of the municipality and the building of the council office. ‘We have a serious problem of water here. There are villages like Mokunda that have never seen a drop of water unless it rains.Mokunda people trek some four kilometers to Karata just to fetch water. It is a challenge for me to see pipe-borne water flow in Mokunda,” he told The Recorder. “Another priority will be to build a befitting council building to house council offices. We are still renting and spend between 400 to 500 thousands per month for rents”
The councilors, in a deliberation, empowered the mayor to seek loans from FEICOM and other international donors to quickly realize the Mokunda and Mokundange water projects and the building of council offices. The mayor was also authorized by the councilors to register the council with the Union of Cities and Councils of Cameroon and other similar but international unions. Deliberations were also adopted pertaining to revenue generation, improvement of health and sanitation, roads and education.
The councilors thanked President Biya for creating the council with a corresponding subdivision, and pledged their unalloyed support to his program of Greater Achievements.
Limbe II Council is blessed with Eloundou Marie-Therese, a development agent and former director of Local Government Training Centre (CEFAM-Buea), as one of its councilor. According to the mayor, “we count a lot on Mrs Eloundou’s experience as former director of CEFAM.She is a principal civil administrator to trust”
Mayor Motanga, in chat with The Recorder, called on citizens of his council to be patient, noting that their development problems would be tackled step by step