Cameroon

Cameroon is a lower-middle-income country with a population of over 28.37 million (2023). Located along the Atlantic Ocean, it shares borders with the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Nigeria. Cameroon is endowed with rich natural resources, including oil and gas, mineral ores, and high-value species of timber and agricultural products, such as coffee, cotton, cocoa, maize, and cassava.

Political Context

On October 27, the Constitutional Council officially declared President Paul Biya the winner of the October 12, 2025, presidential election, securing 53.66% of the vote. This is Paul Biya’s eighth term.

Legislative and municipal elections are planned for 2026. A Presidential decree had extended the mandate for current municipal councilors for a year from its expiry date of Feb. 25, 2025, to May 31, 2026. And the mandate of parliamentarians had been extended for a year from 10 March 2025 to 30 March 2026.

Having enjoyed several decades of stability, Cameroon has in recent years been grappling with attacks by Boko Haram in the Far North and a secessionist insurgency in the Anglophone regions. Since September 2017, this situation has displaced more than one million people internally and around 431,530 refugees have sought shelter in Cameroon. Following the resurgence of the crisis in the Central African Republic since January 2021, over 6,000 Central Africans refugees fled to Cameroon’s East region which was already hosting over 67 % of Central African refugees. According to the UNHCR, as of August 31, 2026, Cameroon is hosting over 414,573 refugees, primarily from the Central African Republic (67%) and Nigeria (29%) and other nationalities (4%).

Social Context

Poverty reduction in Cameroon has stagnated over the past 20 years, with approximately 4 in 10 Cameroonians living below the national poverty line. The household survey data from 2021-2022 suggests that 23.0% of the population lives below the extreme international poverty line.

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Cameroon's economic growth is estimated at 3.4% in 2025, below the pace needed to create sufficient jobs and reduce poverty. Services and manufacturing supported activity, while declining hydrocarbon production, weak exports, infrastructure gaps, poor governance, low investment, and internal conflicts constrained growth. Labor has continued shifting from agriculture to low-productivity urban services, making services the main growth driver since the 1993 devaluation. Growth is projected to average 3.7% in 2026–28, supported by improved energy supply and private investment.

The current account deficit widened from 3.4% of GDP in 2024 to 4.2% in 2025, due to Lower oil production and prices, weaker log exports, and higher imports despite strong cocoa exports. The current account deficit is projected to remain near 4.5% of GDP as non-hydrocarbon exports weaken and imports remain high.

The fiscal deficit rose from 1.4% of GDP in 2024 to 2.2% in 2025 as oil revenues declined and election-related recurrent spending increased. The deficit should average about 1.8% of GDP over the medium term, although tight regional liquidity and costly external borrowing pose risks.

Cameroon’s public and publicly guaranteed debt declined to an estimated 42.9% of GDP in March 2026 from 43.3% a year earlier. Cameroon remains at high risk of debt distress, although debt is considered sustainable and debt-carrying capacity has been upgraded to medium. Prudent fiscal policy and resilient growth support a declining debt ratio, but high debt-service costs, weaker exports, and a narrow export base create significant liquidity risks.

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Boosting Electricity Production

The target is to contribute to M300 objectives with about 6.8million new people with access to electricity. A new MPA is under preparation to further support the sector increase generation capacity through private sector participation, finance ENEO recovery plan and scale up access to electricity towards universal access by 2030.

The Cameroon Transport Sector Development Project is strengthening transport planning, improving transport efficiency and safety on the Babadjou–Bamenda section of the Yaoundé–Bamenda transport corridor, and enhancing safety and security at selected airports in the country.

WB engagement in the agricultural sector comprises two IDA-financed operations. The Acceleration of the Digital Transformation of Cameroon Project supports establishing a more enabling environment for the development of a digital economy and the reduction of digital divides in rural areas.

The Social Safety Net project ($100 million IDA) has helped more than 385,000 poor households improve their well-being. With the new Adaptive Safety Net & Economic Inclusion Project ($160 million IDA) more than 60,000 young people will be trained in entrepreneurship.

The new Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project ($300 million IDA) aims to enhance communities’ participation in local planning and governance and build the capacity of decentralized local authorities to manage resources and implement public investments.

The Cameroon Education Support Project ($175 million IDA) has reduced the textbook to pupil ratio from 1:17 (prior to 2017) to one package of essential textbooks (French, English, and Mathematics) for 2 pupils in 2022.

The $125 million Secondary Education and Skills Development Project seeks to increase equitable access to quality secondary education and market-relevant technical and vocational training.

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The Country Partnership Framework (CPF) presents the World Bank Group’s (WBG) strategy to support Cameroon’s Vision 2035 of becoming an emerging country, democratic and united in its diversity. As the largest economy of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), Cameroon is central to the WBG’s global mission to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet.

The FY25-FY29 CPF presents a program to lay the foundations for an inclusive economic transformation within a context of fragility, conflict, and violence amidst the growing impacts of climate change. Addressing the drivers of fragility and conflict is at the core of the program, which aims to continue supporting the Government of Cameroon ‘s Prevention and Resilience Strategy, approved in October 2021. More broadly, the CPF supports the goals of the NDS30, notably structural transformation of the economy, drawing on key WBG strategic, financial, and analytical inputs.1 This CPF also embraces key dimensions of the WBG Evolution Roadmap, with a focus on climate and fragility, mobilizing private capital, and achieving results at scale. The program is selective, with a deliberate focus on sectors that bring together all three parts of the WBG (and other partners) to crowd in private finance whenever possible, aiming to help Cameroon make tangible and measurable progress on a few development challenges.

As of September 10, 2026, the World Bank’s active portfolio in Cameroon comprises 22 projects, of which six are regional projects.

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