Stakeholders Engagement in the Gentrification Process in Sub Sahara Africa: Constrains and Pathways for Bamenda City, North West Region, Cameroon

Stakeholders and policy instruments in different context construe gentrification. Successful neighborhood rehabilitation across the globe is a product of active stakeholders’ engagement. However, in Sub Sahara Africa, successful neighbourhood revitalization is precluded by numerous constrains. While much scholarly works on gentrification focuses on trends and patterns, more comprehensive studies are required to a) examine the role and lead stakeholder in the gentrification process in Bamenda, b) investigate constrains to stakeholder’s efforts in gentrifying the city of Bamenda. The study employed the exploratory, survey and comparative research designs suitable to monitor and compare the activities of different stakeholders, 18 key informant interviews were conducted with different categories of stakeholders to understand their role and constrains. This was complimented by administering 180 questionnaire to the general population using the purposive sampling and snowball techniques. Secondary data was obtained from exploring project documents of stakeholders and diverse scientific works of scholars. Quantitative and qualitative methods using SPSS version 20 and Micro Excel version 2016 were used to analyse data. The Chi Square test was utilize to ascertain the lead stakeholder in the gentrification process in Bamenda. Findings reveal that multiple stakeholders categorized into international, state and local stakeholders are involved in the gentrification process in Bamenda. While local stakeholders lead gentrification in Bamenda all three categories of stakeholders play crucial roles in leading gentrification. However, the process is constrained by political instability, financial limitations, institutional lapses, administrative gridlock inter alia. To sustainably enhance stakeholders’ effort in the gentrification process of Sub Sahara, this paper therefore recommends the following policy actions. Streamlining and standardizing administrative procedures to reduce administrative gridlock, encouraging more inter-departmental coordination to foster collaboration with task specification to minimize institutional lapses, tax relief programs, land value capture and incentivising developmental attempts to minimize financial burden among others.