Cameroon secures 623 billion FCFA in AFD funding, dominating regional portfolio

Cameroon has significantly strengthened its financial position, attracting nearly 30% of the French Development Agency (AFD) group’s regional portfolio across Central Africa. The institution’s 2025 activity assessment reveals an outstanding commitment of 949.6 million euros, equivalent to approximately 623 billion FCFA, distributed among 51 ongoing projects. This substantial volume places Yaoundé ahead of other major regional capitals, including Kinshasa (741.4 million euros), Libreville (646.3 million euros), Brazzaville (484.9 million euros), N’Djamena (308.7 million euros), and Bangui (144.7 million euros).

A detailed breakdown by entity clarifies the structure of this financial engagement. The AFD itself accounts for 875.8 million euros, while its private sector subsidiary, Proparco, mobilizes 61.8 million euros. Expertise France contributes an additional 12 million euros to complete the arrangement. The overall portfolio comprises 47 AFD projects and 4 projects managed by Expertise France. Focusing solely on the AFD’s direct involvement, Cameroon alone commands 30.7% of a regional total of 2.8 billion euros as of December 31, 2025.

Infrastructure and urban development: the bedrock of intervention

The French financier’s regional strategy clearly prioritizes major infrastructure initiatives. The report underscores that infrastructure development remains central to its intervention framework in Central Africa, highlighting emblematic projects such as Cameroon’s Nachtigal hydroelectric dam and the modernization of the Transgabonais railway. This strategic focus is also evident in the commitments made within Cameroon during 2025.

Within this scope, infrastructure and urban development absorb a significant 44.2% of the allocated funds. Support for private financial institutions follows closely at 35.9%, ahead of governance initiatives (6.8%), education, training, and employment (6.4%), the productive sector (2.9%), water and sanitation (2.2%), and finally, agriculture and food security (1.7%). Among the flagship operations, the Yaoundé and Douala Flood Control Project aims to mitigate the exposure of these two major metropolitan areas to recurrent climatic events.

This sectoral hierarchy reflects both the nation’s substantial equipment deficit and the long-standing financial cooperation between France and Cameroon. It also represents a deliberate choice: concentrating resources on areas that can ultimately reduce logistics and energy costs for both businesses and households.

A financial architecture largely driven by debt

The composition of the financial instruments deployed in 2025 warrants close examination by budgetary analysts. Sovereign loans represent the primary channel, accounting for 33.9% of the total. Following these are senior loans (23.2%), Debt Reduction and Development Contracts (C2D) at 16.2%, guarantees (12.6%), European Union delegated credits (7.1%), subsidies (6.3%), and the Technical Expertise and Experience Exchange Funds (FEXTE) at 0.6%.

In essence, over half of the financial assistance takes the form of repayable instruments. This reality indicates that Cameroon’s status as the leading regional beneficiary comes with future debt servicing obligations, whose sustainability will hinge on the effective economic profitability of the underlying projects. The C2D mechanisms, guarantees, European credits, and subsidies serve to soften this profile without altering its predominant nature.

In the private sector segment, Proparco notably financed Prometal, which the report identifies as a key driver for local industrialization and transformation. Furthermore, the SeptentrionEst and SECAL programs, designed for rural areas, target territorial resilience, entrepreneurship, and food security in the northern regions, which are particularly vulnerable to climatic and security challenges.

Converting leadership into tangible economic gains

Cameroon’s prominent position within the AFD group’s portfolio serves as a financial indicator, not an economic outcome. While the institution’s review does publish aggregated results for projects completed between 2020 and 2025 across sectors like agriculture, health, education, and sanitation, these are presented at a regional scale. Such data does not allow for isolating the specific impact of the Cameroonian portfolio on productivity, urban services, or the stimulation of private investment.

For Cameroonian authorities, the true test lies in execution. The quality of implementation, the successful delivery of works, their operational efficiency, and their capacity to reduce economic costs will ultimately determine the return on these 623 billion FCFA. Maintaining the top regional portfolio ranking is less critical than demonstrating, with concrete evidence, that these commitments are genuinely transforming the nation’s productive apparatus and essential services.