Cameroon is set to host five Latin American countries for a first-of-its-kind economic summit in Yaoundé from April 21 to 23. The event comes as the central African nation accelerates a push to reduce its dependence on imported goods and boost domestic production ahead of a 2035 target to achieve middle-income status.
The Economic Forum for Import-Substitution with Latin American Countries (EFILAC 2026), organised by the Ministry of External Relations (MINREX), will bring together Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile under the theme: “Optimising local production through international partnerships for the structural transformation of Cameroon’s economy.”
The forum is expected to draw more than 500 participants and 2,000 visitors, with over 300 companies represented and 30 moderators facilitating proceedings. The programme includes high-level panels, business-to-business and business-to-government sessions, investment opportunity presentations, partnership agreement signings, and a Business and Cultural Gala Night.
According to the EFILAC 2026 website, Cameroon aims to reach middle-income or emerging market status by 2035. The forum’s organisers note that at least eight Latin American countries are already classified as emerging economies and are “increasingly asserting themselves on the international stage,” challenging the foundations of the global economic and geopolitical system. These include Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil.
The website states that international cooperation with such partners “can help balance the terms of international trade by facilitating access to products, capital, and expertise for which the country lacks a comparative advantage.”
MINREX Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella said the forum represents “a pioneering initiative inscribed in the dynamic of innovative economic diplomacy advocated by the Head of State of Cameroon.”
Import-substitution policy
EFILAC 2026 arrives as Cameroon intensifies implementation of an import-substitution policy launched in 2021, a central pillar of the National Development Strategy, NDS30. The policy targets key agricultural commodities including rice, maize, milk, and fish, sectors identified as priorities for reducing the country’s structural reliance on foreign supply chains and expanding the “Made in Cameroon” brand.
The forum’s stated objectives, as published on the EFILAC 2026 website, include contributing to revising, expanding and improving the nature and scope of the contributions, notably economic, technological, industrial and cultural of Latin American partners to Cameroon’s development process. The forum also aims to build a vast strategic network of collaboration between economic leaders, business executives, government members, senior administrative officials and entrepreneurs.
Agriculture and industrialisation in focus
MINREX said in a press release that EFILAC 2026 will “bring together officials and business personalities from friendly countries alongside policy makers, international experts, economic actors and Cameroonian investors, with a view to exploring cooperation opportunities in the areas of agriculture, industrialisation and local development.”
It also invites applications from Cameroonian businesses wishing to participate in the forum.
Mercy Fosoh
