The World Bank has announced an additional CFA20 billion (about $35 million) in funding for Cameroon’s adaptive social safety net and economic inclusion project. The funds will help support vulnerable families affected by the 2024 floods in the Far North region.

Cheick Fantamady Kanté, the World Bank’s Country Director for Cameroon, made the announcement on April 14 during a portfolio review meeting with government officials in Yaoundé. He said the extra funding is in its final stages of preparation and will be used to strengthen emergency support for about 100,000 more households in need.

With this new commitment, total funding for the program will rise to roughly CFA166 billion. Of that, the World Bank will have provided CFA112 billion, with the remaining CFA54 billion coming from Cameroon’s national budget. The program was originally designed to help 356,000 people between 2023 and 2028. The new funds are expected to push that number even higher.

Launched in December 2023, the project marks the second phase of Cameroon’s broader social safety net strategy, which began in 2013. Like the first phase, it aims to support the country’s poorest households and promote entrepreneurship among young people between the ages of 18 and 35, especially in cities.

The project is structured around five core components. First, it offers regular cash transfers to low-income families, combined with basic guidance to help them become more resilient and productive. Second, it includes emergency cash payments for families affected by climate shocks, conflict, or large-scale displacement. Third, it provides money in exchange for participation in labor-intensive public works programs in both rural and urban areas.

The fourth component targets urban youth working in the informal sector, helping them launch small income-generating activities as a way to survive through self-employment.

Finally, the program also offers financial and technical support for young entrepreneurs with viable business plans, aiming to help them bring their ideas to life and join the formal economy.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The World Bank has stepped up its financial support to Cameroon. Since April 2023, the institution has added $826 million, or about CFA475 billion, to its local portfolio. The total now stands at $4.5 billion, or roughly CFA2,700 billion, up from $3.7 billion (CFA2,220 billion). This marks a 21% increase in just two years.

Cheick Fantamady Kanté, who oversees the World Bank’s Cameroon portfolio, shared the news during a review session held on April 14, 2025, focusing on the projects funded by the institution.

There are 22 active projects in Cameroon backed by the World Bank. These include both national and sub-regional programs, with 17% of them classified as national projects that include direct budget support. Kanté highlighted that the energy and transport sectors alone absorb $2.3 billion (about CFA1,380 billion), making up half of the total commitment.

Figures from Cameroon’s Ministry of Economy show that 66% of the funds are going into infrastructure. That translates to ten ongoing projects: four in energy, five in transport, and one focused on digital transformation.

The rural development sector has four projects. Governance accounts for three, education has two, and social development is represented by just one.

The significant increase in funding reflects the World Bank’s continued commitment to building up Cameroon’s key infrastructure, while still supporting essential social programs.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Mobile money has become a key part of Cameroon’s economy, now contributing more than 5% to the country’s GDP in recent years. This is one of the standout findings from the GSMA’s latest “State of the Mobile Money Industry” report. GSMA is a global association that represents the interests of more than 750 mobile operators and device makers around the world.

The report shows that Cameroon is among the top countries in Central Africa when it comes to mobile money’s share of GDP—on par with Congo and Gabon, where the contribution ranges between 5% and 8%. In Southern Africa, where mobile money isn’t as widely adopted, its share in the economy generally remains below 5%.

Cameroon is now nearly on the same level as some of Africa’s mobile money leaders like Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and even Kenya, which has long been seen as the global pioneer in mobile payments thanks to the launch of M-Pesa by Safaricom in 2007.

In fact, the GSMA notes that mobile money has had a bigger impact on GDP in West Africa than in any other part of the continent. In countries like Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Liberia, mobile money contributes more than 5% of GDP. The same goes for Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania in East Africa.

In Cameroon, this growing economic impact is backed by how much people are using the service. Mobile money usage among adults 15 and older jumped from 29.9% in 2017 to 42.7% in 2022, according to the country’s national statistics office (INS), which released these figures in April 2024. That’s a 12.8-point increase over five years.

Thanks to this rapid growth, Cameroon is now the clear leader in mobile money within the CEMAC region, which includes Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and the Central African Republic. The BEAC, the region’s central bank, reported that in 2022, Cameroon accounted for 71% of all mobile money transactions by number—about 1.7 billion—and 55% of the total value, amounting to CFA59,003 billion.

Congo came in second in terms of volume with 15% of transactions (around 364 million), while Gabon followed Cameroon in terms of transaction value with 15% (CFA16,164 billion).

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon was the only country in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) to improve its current account balance in 2024, the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) revealed in its March 2025 monetary policy report.

The country’s current account deficit dropped from 4.3% of GDP in 2023 to 2.9% in 2024. This positive shift stands in sharp contrast with the rest of the region, where most member states saw their external balances worsen. Cameroon’s progress is mainly tied to stronger trade figures either due to higher exports, lower imports, or both as well as a rise in inflows from abroad.

The new data backs up the optimistic outlook shared earlier by the Cameroonian Ministry of Finance. In December 2024, the country’s national balance of payments committee had already reported a positive overall balance of CFA10 billion in Q2 2024. This followed a CFA114.6 billion deficit in the previous quarter.

“This turnaround is mostly the result of a sharp increase in foreign financing, which outweighed the deepening current account deficit. Year-over-year, however, the overall surplus shrank by CFA229.2 billion,” the committee explained at the time.

Meanwhile, economic performance across the rest of the region declined. In the Central African Republic, the current account deficit jumped from 4.0% to 10.8% of GDP between 2023 and 2024. Congo’s deficit grew from 4.5% to 10.1%. Equatorial Guinea saw its deficit rise from 3.4% to 5.2% of GDP. Gabon, which still maintains a surplus, reported a decline from 7.9% to 6.8%, and Chad’s surplus narrowed from 4.4% to 3.3%.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Nearly a month after blackouts began to worsen across Cameroon’s Southern Interconnected Grid, electricity outages continue to affect seven of the country’s ten regions. In Yaoundé, the planned power cuts announced to last four to six hours often extend for several days. Many neighborhoods are without power, and other towns and villages across the country are also affected. Homes and businesses are struggling to cope.

Power utility Eneo has been sending alerts to customers, citing repeated issues on the transmission network managed by Sonatrel, the national electricity transmission company. The alerts mention ongoing maintenance work, fallen poles, broken cables caused by trees falling during heavy rains, and fires at overloaded transformers. In recent days, Eneo has reported almost daily incidents at the Nyom substation, located on the outskirts of Yaoundé. This substation is newly built and plays an important role in transmitting power from the Nachtigal dam.

The Nachtigal hydropower dam has been connected to the national grid since the first half of 2024. The first of its seven turbines, each with a capacity of 60 MW, began generating electricity last year. On March 18, 2025, the dam reached full capacity, with all seven turbines injecting a total of 420 MW into the grid, according to NHPC, the company in charge of the project. The official inauguration of the dam is scheduled for April 3.

Despite the increase in electricity production, the distribution network remains unreliable. Many parts of the country are still experiencing power cuts. Sources close to the project say that some of the new power lines needed to deliver electricity from the Nachtigal project are not yet completed. As a result, it is difficult to use all the power produced by the dam. Industrial demand has also grown, with an estimated additional need of more than 300 MW, according to industry sources.

Under the agreement between the State of Cameroon and NHPC, the government is required to pay CFA10 billion each month as soon as the dam becomes fully operational. This payment is due whether the energy is consumed or not. Since March 18, when the dam began supplying its full 420 MW to the grid, this condition has been in effect.

Although the dam has increased Cameroon’s electricity production capacity by 30%, many consumers are still experiencing daily outages.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon’s public debt climbed 7.8% in 2024, reaching CFA14.237 trillion by the end of December—about 45.6% of the country’s GDP. The latest report from the National Sinking Fund (CAA), released in March 2025, attributes this rise mainly to borrowing by the central government.

Despite the increase, the CAA maintains that the debt remains under control and aligns with the country’s 2024-2026 Medium-Term Debt Strategy, which aims to keep it below 50% of GDP by 2026. This target is still well under the regional limit of 70% of GDP.

The bulk of the debt—92.6%—comes from the central government, while public enterprises account for 7.2%, and local governments hold a minimal 0.08%. The report also notes that central government borrowing surged 8.7% over the year, reflecting growing budgetary commitments.

Source: Business in Cameroon