(Business in Cameroon) – The government plans to allocate 16.1 billion XAF for the maintenance of communal roads in the 2026 fiscal year, Public Works Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi announced. Sources involved in the 2026 budget discussions held on November 3, 2025, in Yaoundé confirmed the figure.
The proposed allocation represents an increase of 4.5 billion XAF, or 38.5%, compared to the 11.6 billion XAF budgeted for 2025.
The increase is intended to improve the communal road network, which accounts for 81% of the country’s national network. However, Ministry of Public Works experts say only 24.2% of these roads are considered to be in good or fair condition, underscoring the ongoing challenges facing road maintenance in Cameroon.
The main obstacle remains a serious shortfall in road maintenance funding. For the 2025 fiscal year, the Road Fund estimated the total funding needed to maintain the 39,000-kilometer road network, which includes 13,500 meters of engineering structures, at 1.097 trillion XAF.
Despite this need, the agency said that funds raised for the 2025 program, combining the Public Investment Budget (BIP) and the Road Fund, came to about 100 billion XAF. Esaïe Moussa Aubin, the Road Fund administrator, acknowledged that these funds were only enough to cover less than 10% of estimated needs.
BRM
