(Business in Cameroon) – At the 42nd Ordinary Session held on October 11, 2024, in Bangui, the Central African Republic, the Council of Ministers of the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (CEMAC) approved the 2025 budget for the CEMAC Commission. The budget for next year stands at CFA82.9 billion, down by CFA7.6 billion (8.6%) compared to the 2024 budget of CFA90.5 billion.
“The Council welcomed the budget reduction, which reflects efforts to streamline spending,” stated the official report from the session in Bangui. This approval comes at a time when the CEMAC Commission has struggled to meet its financial targets due to the accumulation of unpaid contributions from member states.
These contributions are mainly collected through the Community Integration Tax (TCI), introduced in 2012 to fund the regional integration process. The TCI represents 1% of the taxable value of imports from non-CEMAC countries and is the primary source of funding for the Commission’s budget. However, national treasuries often fail to remit these funds regularly, leading to significant arrears.
By the end of 2020, for example, CEMAC member states owed about CFA80 billion in unpaid TCI contributions, according to official data. “When comparing the budgeted resources each year with the actual contributions from the states, there is a noticeable gap due to unpaid funds,” said the president of the CEMAC Council of Ministers during the Bangui session. Richard Filakota, the Central African Republic’s Minister of Economy, took this opportunity to urge member states to fulfill their obligations by remitting the TCI funds to the CEMAC Commission.
