Food security issues were at the heart of the latest session of the Budgetary Orientation Debate in Cameroon. While opening the session last June 8 in Yaoundé, Senate President Marcel Niat Njifenji urged senators to focus on those issues to find sustainable and efficient solutions “to bring about lasting change in the country's socio-economic environment and the living conditions of our compatriots."

According to him, "the recent health crisis, coupled with climate change, social unrest in some of our regions, and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis have led to a rise in the price of agricultural inputs and basic foodstuffs, creating a systemic risk of shortages of basic foodstuffs in some parts of the country". The situation has pushed nearly 4 million people into food insecurity across the country, data from the agricultural department showed.

For the next year, the Senate President urges the government to take "budgetary, financial and structural decisions to reinforce the measures already underway and anticipate any future deterioration".

“Each year before July 1, the government sends Parliament the medium-term framework documents, together with a report on the macroeconomic situation and a report on the execution of the budget for the current financial year," the law governing the State's financial system states.