CDC spends nearly all 2025 revenue on payroll, posts CFA20 billion loss ⁰

Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) spent nearly as much on personnel as it generated in revenue in 2025. This underscores the growing financial pressure on the state-owned agribusiness, which posted a CFA20.04 billion net loss and ended the year with CFA44.04 billion in tax and social liabilities.

Personnel expenses re ached CFA24.81 billion, compared with revenue of CFA24.93 billion, according to CDC’s 2025 annual report. Higher sales were not enough to improve the company’s operating performance. Revenue rose 8% from CFA23.10 billion in 2024, but value added fell 23.4% to CFA10.38 billion. Personnel expenses, meanwhile, increased 20% to CFA24.81 billion.

As a result, gross operating income deteriorated from a negative CFA7.12 billion to a negative CFA14.43 billion. CDC’s operating loss widened to CFA19.48 billion from CFA12.58 billion in 2024, an increase of 54.8%. The company consequently swung from a CFA45.42 billion net profit in 2024 to a CFA20.04 billion net loss in 2025. The sharp reversal, however, needs to be viewed in light of the exceptional income that supported the previous year’s result.

CDC recorded CFA59.90 billion in income outside ordinary activities in 2024, an amount that was not repeated in 2025. Excluding those exceptional items, ordinary activities were already running a CFA12.87 billion deficit in 2024. That loss widened to CFA19.81 billion in 2025.

Payroll reaches 99.5% of sales

Personnel expenses now absorb the equivalent of 99.5% of CDC’s revenue, up from 89.5% in 2024. The company’s CFA24.81 billion payroll and related personnel costs also exceeded the value added it generated by CFA14.43 billion. That increase came despite a 2.8% decline in the workforce recorded at year-end. CDC had 11,437 workers as of December 31, 2025, down from 11,761 a year earlier, a decrease of 324 employees.

Those figures, however, represent the number of employees present at the end of each financial year rather than the average number of workers paid throughout the year. They therefore cannot be used to directly calculate how the average annual cost per employee changed.

In its annual report, CDC acknowledges a “huge working capital gap,” which has contributed to an accumulation of salary arrears. The company said negotiations are underway to secure overdraft facilities and identified irregular salary payments as one of the factors weighing on its operations.

The financial strain is also visible in CDC’s cash flows. Operating activities consumed CFA16.03 billion in cash in 2025 after generating CFA16.73 billion in 2024. At the same time, the cash flow statement recorded CFA14.02 billion in capital increases through new contributions. Despite those inflows, year-end net cash fell from CFA10.49 billion to CFA3.06 billion.

CFA44 billion in tax and social liabilities

CDC’s tax and social liabilities stood at CFA44.04 billion as of December 31, 2025, down from CFA47.24 billion a year earlier, a decline of 6.8%. Those liabilities represented 58.8% of the company’s CFA74.88 billion in short-term liabilities. Supplier debt, meanwhile, increased from CFA15.65 billion to CFA18.36 billion.

The CFA44.04 billion represents a stock of liabilities carried on CDC’s balance sheet, rather than an expense generated during 2025 alone. The annual report refers to a separate note for the composition of the amount. It is therefore not possible from the reported figure to precisely distinguish taxes, social security contributions and any arrears carried over from previous financial years.

An increase in share capital also failed to prevent further erosion of CDC’s equity position. Share capital rose from CFA53.50 billion to CFA67.52 billion, while equity and similar resources fell from CFA9.67 billion to CFA3.20 billion. Retained earnings remained negative at CFA55.70 billion.

CDC also attributes its difficulties to aging plantations and delays in replanting some of them, insufficient fertilizer supplies and an aging vehicle fleet. The company also cited restrictions on access to some plantations and recruitment difficulties linked to the displacement of workers. The company further pointed to production interruptions and supply-chain disruptions associated with the sociopolitical crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

Source: Business in Cameroon