- (Business in Cameroon) – CSPH net profit soared to 12.9 bln CFA francs in 2024, up from 5 bln a year earlier.
- Domestic gas consumption climbed 12%, triggering a 23.7% increase in subsidies.
- Fourth-quarter spending accounted for nearly half of the annual subsidy budget.
Cameroon’s hydrocarbons price stabilisation fund (CSPH) reported a net profit of 12.9 billion CFA francs ($20.8 million) in 2024, up 158% from 5 billion CFA francs in 2023, the state agency said in a statement on June 27.
The result was driven by a 3% rise in demand for road fuels including petrol, kerosene and diesel, and a 12% increase in domestic gas consumption compared with the previous year. The CSPH said it spent 52.6 billion CFA francs to subsidise cooking gas prices, up 23.7% from 42.5 billion in 2023.
The agency did not detail why subsidy spending exceeded government forecasts by nearly 9 billion CFA francs. However, data show that the surge was concentrated in the final quarter of 2024. As of Sept. 30, CSPH had released 27.7 billion CFA francs for gas price support, with October to December alone consuming 24.9 billion CFA francs, or 47% of the annual subsidy budget, likely due to year-end festivities.
The CSPH covers the gap between the actual cost and retail price of liquefied petroleum gas. For each 12.5 kg bottle, the fund subsidises 2,106 CFA francs against an average real cost of 8,606 CFA francs per cylinder.
Cameroon relies heavily on imports to meet domestic LPG demand. In 2021, the national oil company SNH reported that local production satisfied only 21% of internal consumption.
