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(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon’s short-term debt yields hit a record 6.95% in February 2025
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Country now pays more than Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to raise funds
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Rising borrowing costs raise concerns in Yaoundé about future debt strategy
After years of borrowing at the lowest cost in the Central African public debt market, Cameroon is now offering the highest interest rates on Treasury bills across the CEMAC region. In February 2025, the country’s average yield on short-term Treasury bills (BTA) reached 6.95%, according to official data from the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). This is the highest rate Cameroon has offered since the regional debt market was launched nearly 14 years ago.
By comparison, just two years ago, in February 2022, the country was paying 2.8%. A year later, in February 2024, rates had climbed to 4.12%, and later that same month, to 6.58%, as pressure from rising interest rates across the CEMAC zone forced the government to adjust.
Now, in 2025, Cameroon has become more generous to investors than even Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, two countries seen as solid borrowers. In February, Gabon offered 6.78% on its BTAs, and Equatorial Guinea offered 6.8%. Chad, Congo, and the Central African Republic did not issue any Treasury bills during that month.
Behind this shift is a strong demand for BTAs. Data from the regional central bank shows that out of the CFA5,079.3 billion raised by CEMAC countries on the public debt market in 2024, more than CFA3,068 billion—about 60.4%—came from short-term Treasury bills. This growing appetite has pushed rates up across the region, in line with basic supply and demand.
The trend is worrying Cameroonian officials, who have long stuck to a cautious approach when it comes to borrowing costs. During a presentation in Douala on February 13, 2025, Finance Minister Louis Paul Motazé warned investors that Cameroon’s borrowing costs had more than doubled between 2020 and 2024, rising from 2.67% to 6.33%. He also criticized the competitive rate policies of other CEMAC countries that, in his view, are helping drive up the overall cost of debt.
Part of the problem stems from BEAC’s tighter monetary policy, which began in late 2021 to fight inflation. But there is also a deeper, structural shift at play. As more governments rely on BTAs to cover short-term cash needs, competition for investor funds has intensified—forcing even the region’s most prudent borrowers to offer more.