(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon’s investment spending totaled 118.8 billion CFA francs in the first quarter of 2025, according to the 2026–2028 Medium-Term Economic and Budgetary Programming Document, which will serve as the basis for the upcoming Budget Orientation Debate in Parliament. This figure represents a 40.7% drop compared to the 200.2 billion CFA francs invested by the public treasury during the same period in 2024.
An analysis of data published by the Ministry of Finance in the same document reveals that public investment during the first three months of the current year accounted for only 12.4% of the state’s total expenditures. Official sources estimate these total expenditures at 957.5 billion CFA francs, reflecting a year-on-year decrease of 28.2%.
The significant decline in Cameroon’s public investment by the end of March 2025 resulted from slow disbursements of external loans intended for project financing. According to the Ministry of Finance, effectively disbursed project loans dropped by 11.6% over the period, corresponding to a budgetary execution rate of 71.6%.
Domestic Resources Provide Support
In this context, public investment financed by external sources fell by 74.9%. Specifically, while the Cameroonian government had injected 143.4 billion CFA francs in external financing into its investment projects between January and March 2024, only 36 billion CFA francs had been made available by the end of March 2025.
Conversely, investments funded by domestic resources showed an upward trend during the same period. Officially, these rose from 55.3 billion CFA francs in the first quarter of 2024 to 72.5 billion CFA francs by the end of March 2025, marking a 31.2% increase in relative value.
The decline in investment spending in Cameroon between January and March 2025 mirrored a drop in the state’s current expenditures. Finance Ministry data shows these fell by 30% by the end of March 2025, amounting to 520.2 billion CFA francs, compared to 749 billion CFA francs at the end of March 2024. This year-on-year decrease is attributed to reduced spending on both goods and services, which fell by 36%, and transfers and pensions, which dropped by 74.5%.
Written in French by Brice R. Mbodiam,
Translated and adapted by Mouka Mezonlin
