Business

22, September 2026

Guinness Cameroon posts CFA1.3 billion loss ahead of SABC merger ⁰

Guinness Cameroon posted a net loss of CFA1.26 billion (€1.927 million) in 2025, its final full-year results ahead of a planned merger into SABC that will combine the two major Cameroon subsidiaries controlled by Brasseries et Glacières Internationales (BGI), the parent company of the Castel Group.

The brewer generated CFA90.7 billion (€138.202 million) in revenue during the year, according to subsidiary data attached to BGI’s 2025 annual financial statements. The loss was equivalent to about 1.4% of revenue.

The BGI document does not provide Guinness Cameroon’s detailed income statement, however, so it does not establish which expenses or events caused the company to fall into the red. Among the African subsidiaries listed in the table, Guinness Cameroon was one of only two companies to report a loss in 2025. Société des Brasseries de l’Ouest Africain (Soboa) in Senegal recorded a CFA1.5 billion (€2.326 million) loss.

Guinness Cameroon’s performance contrasts sharply with SABC, BGI’s other major subsidiary in Cameroon. Société Anonyme des Boissons du Cameroun reported CFA50.6 billion (€77.072 million) in net profit on CFA483.2 billion (€736.664 million) in revenue in 2025. BGI’s accounts also show Guinness Cameroon with CFA20.5 billion (€31.237 million) in share capital and CFA13.6 billion (€20.787 million) in shareholders’ equity. Equity was therefore about CFA6.9 billion below share capital. The figures disclosed by BGI do not, on their own, establish the reason for the difference.

BGI owns 100% of Guinness Cameroon. Its stake is carried in BGI’s accounts at a gross book value of CFA301.4 billion (€459.494 million). After accounting impairments, the net book value stands at nearly CFA270.1 billion (€411.696 million).

Those figures represent the accounting value of BGI’s stake in Guinness Cameroon, not financial investments owned by Guinness Cameroon itself.

CFA271.8 Billion in Net Assets to Transfer to SABC

The results come as Guinness Cameroon proceeds with a merger into SABC. Under the proposed transaction, all of Guinness Cameroon’s assets, rights, receivables and liabilities will transfer to SABC, and Guinness Cameroon will cease to exist as a separate legal entity once the deal is completed.

Figures disclosed for the merger show that the assets to be transferred total about CFA329 billion, while liabilities amount to nearly CFA57 billion. The resulting net assets contributed to SABC are valued at CFA271.762 billion.

In exchange, SABC plans to issue 1,811,106 new shares with a nominal value of CFA10,000 each. Its share capital would increase by CFA18.111 billion, from CFA57.363 billion to CFA75.475 billion. The total number of SABC shares would rise from 5,736,363 to 7,547,469. The new shares issued for the merger would therefore represent about 24% of SABC’s post-merger capital.

The CFA18.1 billion capital increase does not represent the full value of the net assets transferred. The roughly CFA253.65 billion difference between the CFA271.762 billion net asset contribution and the nominal value of the new shares is to be recorded as a merger premium.

The transaction will bring operations currently conducted separately by SABC and Guinness Cameroon under a single company. It remains subject to the required legal procedures and approvals before completion.

Acquisition Announced at £389 Million

The merger represents one of the final stages of the restructuring that followed Castel Group’s acquisition of Guinness Cameroon. On July 14, 2022, British drinks group Diageo announced the sale of its Cameroon subsidiary to Castel for £389 million, equivalent to nearly CFA300 billion at the exchange rate at the time.

The agreement also provided for Castel to continue producing and marketing Guinness in Cameroon under a licensing agreement with Diageo. Competition authorities approved the acquisition on March 28, 2023, subject to commitments that must be fulfilled over five years. These cover areas including industrial investment, local production, distribution and employment.

Around that time, the group announced a CFA200 billion five-year investment program in Cameroon. The plan included new production lines at its Yaoundé, Garoua and Bafoussam facilities and an expansion of Socaver, its glass-bottle manufacturing subsidiary.

Three years after the acquisition was approved, competition authorities continue to monitor those commitments. A third annual assessment was conducted on July 21, 2026, including visits to the Ndokoti industrial site in Douala and Socaver facilities.

Following the assessment, Léopold Noël Boumsong, president of the National Competition Commission, said the group was “ahead of its entire roadmap, even exceeding the initial requirements.”

That assessment was not accompanied by a detailed quantitative report. The statement released after the review did not disclose cumulative investment since the acquisition, the number of jobs created or maintained, or the additional production capacity commissioned relative to the original targets. The merger will also change how Guinness Cameroon’s former operations are tracked. Once completed, its assets, liabilities and operations will become part of SABC.

Castel’s commitments made when it acquired Guinness Cameroon will, however, remain subject to oversight by the regional competition authorities until the end of the agreed monitoring period.

Source: Business in Cameroon

14, September 2026

Dangote refinery launches continent’s biggest IPO ⁰

The Lagos-based refinery, which began operations in 2024, has a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, exceeding domestic demand in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.

It began exporting its fuel abroad a few months ago and has become the largest supplier of jet fuel to Europe, the company says.

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery aims to raise funds to double its capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day by 2028, which would make it the world’s largest refinery, surpassing Jamnagar in India.

Listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, the IPO is targeting up to 10 million shareholders across Africa.

Describing it as an “historic day”, Dangote said that the IPO was “not simply about listing a company. It is about listing a new possibility for Nigeria, and for Africa”.

Investors can buy as few as 10 shares at 525 naira each, potentially raising 2.15 trillion naira ($1.6 billion) in a move Dangote hopes will give ordinary people a chance for a stake in a long-term asset.

He has said the offering, which closes October 13, will be the biggest IPO in African history and has encouraged participation by small investors, including people on lower incomes, such as domestic workers and drivers.

“We believe that an asset of this magnitude should not create value for only very few people, it should create value for millions of people,” said Dangote.

Dangote draws parallels with US giant Amazon and Microsoft whose early shareholders saw the value of their investments grow dramatically.

Monday’s opening saw a surge in interest with several investment platforms such as Bamboo reporting on X that it was experiencing “a much higher than expected traffic trying to get into the Dangote IPO”.

Another investment site, Cowrywise, said it was “seeing more traffic than usual” on its app during the first few hours of the offer going live.

In July, the mega-refinery secured $2.5 billion in investment from private investors.

Located outside Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, the refinery has become a major part of Dangote’s business empire, which spans cement and sugar, to fertiliser production.

Africa currently imports more than 70 percent of its refined fuel, according to an Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) report in April.

Source: AFP

14, September 2026

Norway joins 11 other states to criminalize trade with West Bank settlements ⁰

Norway and 10 other European countries, plus Canada, are pushing for landmark legislation that would impose prison sentences on individuals and organizations trading goods from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Individuals or businesses discovered engaging in trade with Israeli settlements may be subject to a prison sentence of up to three years, according to the proposed Norwegian trade restrictions bill.

Norway’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, expressed optimism that the law would be passed by parliament this coming autumn.

Eide told the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that “Lawmakers are facing increasing pressure to respond to the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories.”

He added that numerous other nations are adopting measures similar to those which the Oslo government has already proposed with the bill.

Eide said he believed that Israel has grown excessively accustomed to intimidating Western nations by accusing them of anti-Semitism whenever they criticize Israel for its abuses and breaches of international law.

On September 8, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden announced plans to implement trade restrictions on products sourced from Israeli settlements.

About 750,000 Israeli settlers live in 156 illegal settlements and 360 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds. They routinely carry out attacks aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians, according to Palestinian figures.

The UN regards these settlements as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions because they are built on occupied land. The UN Security Council has banned Israel’s settlement activity in several resolutions.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of historical Palestine illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds. Those rulings, like so many before them, have remained mere words.

14, September 2026

White Elephant: Kribi Port sinks to 395th globally after one of the sharpest drops in performance ⁰

Cameroon’s Kribi deep-sea port has recorded one of the world’s steepest declines in container-port performance since 2020, with longer vessel turnaround times placing it near the bottom of the World Bank’s latest global ranking.

Kribi ranked 395th out of 400 ports in the 2025 Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), published in June 2026 by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence. Its score fell to -216.5 points from -5 in 2020, a deterioration of 211.5 points over five years.

Calculations based on the report’s statistical appendix show that Kribi posted the fifth-largest decline among the 317 ports with scores available for both 2020 and 2025. Within the CPPI’s West Africa maritime region, only Conakry performed worse over the period, with a 278.9-point decline.

Kribi’s deterioration was not continuous. Its score fell to -118 in 2021 before recovering to -84 in 2022 and -62 in 2023. It then deteriorated sharply to -199 in 2024 and reached its lowest level in 2025. Kribi also performed well below the 2025 averages for West Africa, at -66.2 points, Sub-Saharan Africa, at -72, and lower-middle-income countries, at -9.

An Index of Port Time, Not a Percentage Change

The CPPI measures the time container ships spend in port while accounting for vessel size and the number of container moves during each call. Its data come primarily from Automatic Identification System signals, supplemented by port and operational information held by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Each port’s final score is the average of an administrative index and a statistical index. The report breaks port calls into arrival time, berth time and departure time, but specifies that the CPPI calculation relies on arrival and berth time. The methodology, definitions and aggregation rules have been maintained across the 2020-2025 series to allow comparisons over time.

A score of zero represents the 2024 global average, which serves as the benchmark. A negative score therefore indicates longer turnaround times relative to that benchmark, but index points cannot be converted directly into hours.

Describing Kribi’s change from -5 to -216.5 as a decline of more than 4,200% would be misleading because the calculation would start from a negative value very close to zero. The relevant measure is the 211.5-point deterioration.

Kribi’s 2025 score is based on 183 vessel calls. The appendix shows that ships spent 47.3% of their port hours at berth. That figure does not refer exclusively to productive time: the World Bank defines berth hours as the period from all-fast to all-lines-released, including any idle time.

For Kribi, the report does not provide separate figures for anchorage waiting times, maneuvering, container handling or interruptions while vessels are at berth.

PAK Attributes Decline to Yard Congestion

The report does not provide a Kribi-specific explanation for the decline. Two officials from the Port Authority of Kribi (PAK), contacted by Business in Cameroon, attributed longer vessel stays to congestion at the container terminal operated by Kribi Conteneurs Terminal (KCT).

The first official pointed to “idle time,” including waits before berthing, delayed starts to container handling and interruptions while vessels remain at berth. The official rejected equipment or skills shortages as the cause and said KCT’s cranes regularly reach or exceed 24 container moves per hour, a level described as an international benchmark.

The CPPI, however, publishes no data on crane productivity at Kribi that would independently verify that claim.

The second official cited the lack of an Inland Container Depot, or dry port. Such a facility would allow containers that remain beyond their free-storage period to be transferred away from the maritime terminal. According to the official, the project was already under consideration in 2021 based on traffic forecasts but did not materialize.

The official linked its absence to an eight-hectare expansion of the container yard launched in 2026 to provide additional storage capacity. The source also said the terminal reached “100% congestion” in 2025, without specifying whether that referred to yard occupancy, an annual average or a temporary peak. PAK publicly acknowledged operational difficulties, delays and bottlenecks reported by customs brokers on July 30, 2026, but provided no indicators on yard occupancy or vessel turnaround times.

Feeder Delays May Extend Container Storage

Port officials also point to increased transshipment traffic. Since Phase II officially entered service on May 9, 2025, Kribi has been able to accommodate vessels up to 400 meters long with capacity approaching 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent units.

PAK valued the expansion at $793 million. It includes 715 meters of quay and a 51-hectare platform.

According to one official, at least one very large container ship now calls at Kribi each month and can unload several thousand containers for onward shipment to other ports in the subregion, including Douala. A CMA CGM service plan published in December 2025 confirms that Douala is served by feeder vessels on a route that calls at Kribi.

Shipping companies organize those feeder rotations. When a vessel scheduled to collect containers arrives several days or weeks late, cargo remains in the yard. Terminal teams must then move containers to free space before the next ship arrives. “No matter how productive your cranes are, it can be very difficult when you have a congested yard,” one source said.

That explanation is consistent with one of the mechanisms identified by the World Bank: saturated storage areas and poor coordination with hinterland networks can slow vessel handling. The CPPI score alone, however, does not establish that this is what happened at Kribi.

A fuller assessment would require monthly data on anchorage waiting times, berth inactivity, yard occupancy, container dwell times and feeder schedule reliability. Available information also does not specify the timeline for the planned dry port or when the additional eight hectares of container-yard capacity will enter service.

Source: Business in Cameroon

11, September 2026

Billionaire Alex Beard pleads not guilty to Cameroon, Nigeria bribery charges ⁰

British billionaire Alex Beard, the former head of oil at commodities giant Glencore, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to make corrupt payments linked to the company’s oil operations in West Africa.

Beard, 59, appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London on September 10, where he denied allegations brought by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) concerning alleged corrupt payments to officials in Nigeria and Cameroon.

Prosecutors allege that Beard was involved in a conspiracy to make corrupt payments to government or state-owned oil company officials in Nigeria between 2010 and 2014 and in Cameroon between 2007 and 2014. Beard has denied the charges.

The case is part of a wider prosecution involving six former Glencore employees accused of conspiring to make corrupt payments to benefit the company’s oil operations in West Africa. The SFO says the charges relate to the awarding of oil contracts spanning Cameroon, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire between 2007 and 2014.

Beard appeared in court alongside Andrew Gibson, Glencore’s former head of oil operations. Gibson, 66, pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy to make corrupt payments relating to Nigeria, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. He also denied an additional charge of conspiracy to falsify documents for accounting purposes.

Four other former Glencore oil traders, Martin Wakefield, David Perez, Paul Hopkirk and Ramon Labiaga, have also pleaded not guilty to related charges. All six defendants are scheduled to stand trial from October 4, 2027.

The prosecution follows Glencore’s earlier corporate bribery case. In 2022, Glencore Energy (UK) pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery relating to payments made to secure preferential access to oil and was ordered to pay £280 million in penalties and confiscation of proceeds. The corporate case was separate from the current prosecution of the former employees.

Beard became a billionaire after Glencore’s flotation on the London Stock Exchange in 2011. He joined Glencore in 1995 after working as an oil trader at BP and later became the company’s global head of oil, a position he held until his retirement in 2019. His wealth became public when Glencore listed in London and disclosed the value of shares held by senior executives.

The SFO first charged Beard and four other former Glencore employees with conspiring to make corrupt payments in August 2024. A sixth defendant, David Perez, was subsequently charged as part of the case. The agency says the alleged conduct involved contracts and payments connected to Glencore’s West African oil operations.

Beard’s latest court appearance marks the formal entry of his not-guilty plea ahead of the 2027 trial. The allegations against him have not been proven in court. The SFO says it will continue pursuing the case against all six former Glencore employees ahead of the October 2027 trial.

Source: Billionaires.Africa

11, September 2026

SONARA loses final UK appeal over CFA42.8 billion Sahara Energy claim ⁰

Cameroon’s state-owned refinery Sonara has lost its final attempt before the UK Supreme Court to challenge a $76.97 million claim, or about CFA42.8 billion, awarded to Sahara Energy Resource Ltd and Sahara Energy Resource DMCC.

On June 29, 2026, the UK’s highest court refused Sonara permission to appeal, leaving in place a Feb. 6 Court of Appeal ruling in favor of Sahara Energy.

In case UKSC/2026/0046, Lord Briggs, Lord Burrows and Lord Doherty found that Sonara’s application did not raise a point of law of general public importance. The Supreme Court therefore did not reconsider the merits of the dispute.

Sonara had challenged the interpretation of a joint report it signed with Sahara Energy in September 2019. It also raised its financial dependence on the Cameroonian government and the absence of a specific repayment schedule in the document.

The refusal ends Sonara’s attempt to overturn the Court of Appeal decision before the Supreme Court. That ruling had reversed an earlier High Court judgment in favor of the Cameroonian refinery.

$76.97 Million Recognized in a 2019 Agreement

The dispute stems from crude oil cargoes that Sahara supplied to Sonara between 2013 and 2016. The refinery paid the principal amounts on the invoices and contractual interest after legal proceedings began.

Three categories of claims remained unresolved: additional interest tied to Sahara’s financing costs with its banks, foreign-exchange losses, and bank penalties associated with letters of credit used to finance the cargoes.

The companies reviewed those claims during a reconciliation meeting at the Limbé refinery on Sept. 4 and 5, 2019.

The “Joint Report” signed after the meeting classified the additional interest and foreign-exchange losses as “Undisputed Claims,” for a combined $76,967,673.97. Bank penalties totaling $50,760,089.41 were classified as “Disputed Claims.”

The interpretation of that distinction ultimately determined the outcome of the case.

Initial Victory Overturned on Appeal

On Dec. 9, 2024, London’s High Court initially sided with Sonara. It found that the Joint Report constituted a legally binding agreement for some claims, but not for the additional interest and foreign-exchange losses. Sahara’s remaining claims were therefore dismissed.

Sahara appealed and secured a reversal on Feb. 6, 2026.

In its [2026] EWCA Civ 54 judgment, the Court of Appeal found that “Undisputed Claims” should carry its ordinary meaning: the claims in question were no longer contested.

The judges also found that nothing in the Joint Report made Sonara’s commitment conditional on prior approval from the Cameroonian government. According to the court, the fact that the parties still had to discuss a repayment schedule or flexible payment arrangements did not alter their existing agreement on the validity and amount of the claims.

The Court of Appeal therefore ruled in Sahara’s favor on the $76.97 million in additional interest and foreign-exchange losses.

Sahara Loses Additional $50.76 Million Claim

The oil trader’s victory was only partial. The Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal of its $50.76 million claim for bank penalties and charges, finding that an indemnity provision in the 2013 contract did not allow Sahara to pass those costs on to Sonara.

Sahara Energy also sought to challenge that part of the ruling before the Supreme Court. Its application for permission to appeal, filed as UKSC/2026/0047, was also rejected on June 29, 2026.

The judges found that Sahara’s application raised neither an arguable legal issue that warranted Supreme Court intervention nor a point of law of general public importance.

Both companies therefore failed to overturn the portions of the Court of Appeal judgment they challenged. Sonara remains bound by the ruling on the $76.97 million claim, while Sahara cannot recover the additional $50.76 million it sought in bank penalties.

Payment of CFA42.8 Billion Not Established

The Supreme Court’s refusal does not constitute a new financial award. It leaves the Court of Appeal judgment in place.

The public court documents reviewed establish Sahara Energy’s recognized $76.97 million claim. They do not, however, establish that Sonara has already paid the amount, equivalent to about CFA42.8 billion.

Judicial recognition of the debt and its payment are separate matters. At this stage, no identified public information establishes that Sonara has paid the amount in full.

Source: Business in Cameroon

7, September 2026

Douala: US firm Cybastion plans $75 Million AI data center and power plant ⁰

US company Cybastion plans to invest $75 million, about CFA42.25 billion, in a data center in Douala designed in part for artificial intelligence applications and supported by dedicated power generation capacity.

The project was among the investment proposals presented at the first Cameroon-US Economic and Commercial Dialogue, held in Yaoundé on August 27, 2026. Cybastion describes the planned facility as a “sovereign data center” that would provide computing capacity, storage and other digital services locally. Several critical specifications, however, remain undisclosed. The company has provided no details on the data center’s computing capacity, the size of the planned power plant or the technology that would generate its electricity.

The construction schedule, exact location in Douala and financing structure for the $75 million investment have also not been disclosed. At this stage, the project therefore remains an investment proposal rather than a fully secured financing commitment.

Dedicated Power Generation Capacity

The inclusion of dedicated power generation is one of the project’s distinguishing features. Data centers require a continuous and stable electricity supply for servers, cooling systems and other equipment, while infrastructure designed to support AI applications can require even greater amounts of power.

The issue reflects concerns already identified in Cameroon. A study by the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies Development (CENADI) on the competitiveness and viability of data centers examined their business models and operating constraints.

Cybastion would not, however, enter a market without existing infrastructure. CAMTEL already operates a Tier III-certified data center in Zamengoé, near Yaoundé. In Douala, ST Digital also operates a private data center equipped with infrastructure dedicated to artificial intelligence. Posts and Telecommunications Minister Minette Libom Li Likeng visited the facility in July 2025.

Cybastion’s project would therefore need to distinguish itself through factors such as capacity, customers, hosting costs and available power. Those details have yet to be disclosed.

A $66 Million Precedent in Côte d’Ivoire

Cybastion already has a comparable project in West Africa. In August 2025, the Export-Import Bank of the United States approved a $66.14 million guarantee to support construction of Côte d’Ivoire’s national data center.

Under that financing structure, Côte d’Ivoire’s Finance Ministry is the borrower, Cybastion Institute of Technology is the exporter and Citibank is the lender covered by the US guarantee. In May 2026, EXIM named the transaction its “Industries of the Future Deal of the Year.”

No comparable financing arrangement has yet been announced for Cameroon. Cybastion’s proposed $75 million investment forms part of roughly $7 billion, or nearly CFA4 trillion, in US commercial and investment opportunities identified during the Yaoundé dialogue.

Cameroon’s Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), however, says the projects are at different stages of development and describes the announced amounts as investment intentions that still need to translate into concrete projects.

For Cybastion’s project, the next key developments will therefore include the identity of its financiers, the capacity of the data center and power plant, the choice of site, the construction timetable and any commitments made by the Cameroonian government.

Source: Business in Cameroon

3, September 2026

Cameroon’s CEMAC treasury debt tops CFA 2 trillion ⁰

Cameroon’s outstanding Treasury securities on the CEMAC public debt market exceeded CFA2 trillion at the end of July 2026, but their annual growth slowed sharply after two years of much faster increases.

The stock reached CFA2.061 trillion as of July 31, up CFA80.4 billion, or 4.1%, from CFA1.981 trillion a year earlier, according to monthly statistics published by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).

Cameroon had the third-largest stock of outstanding government securities in the regional market. Gabon ranked first with CFA3.424 trillion, followed by Congo with CFA3.041 trillion. Cameroon accounted for 19.5% of the CFA10.561 trillion in government securities outstanding across CEMAC’s six member countries.

Annual growth slows to 4.1%

The increase between July 2025 and July 2026 represents a significant slowdown from the previous two years. Cameroon’s outstanding securities rose by CFA293 billion, or 23.7%, between July 2023 and July 2024. The increase then reached CFA452.2 billion, or 29.6%, between July 2024 and July 2025.

The latest annual increase fell to CFA80.4 billion. The slowdown does not mean that the stock has started to decline, however. It rose by CFA52.1 billion in July 2026 alone, from CFA2.009 trillion in June to CFA2.061 trillion, an increase of 2.59% in one month.

Outstanding securities also differ from the total amount of debt issued by the Treasury over a given period. The figure represents securities that remain unpaid at a specific date and reflects both new issuance and repayments. The outstanding stock alone therefore cannot show whether slower annual growth resulted from lower fundraising, faster repayments or a combination of the two.

Borrowing costs decline from a year earlier

Higher financing costs do not, on their own, explain the slower increase either. The average cost of Cameroon’s Treasury bills, known as BTA, fell to 6.97% in July 2026 from 7.10% a year earlier. The average cost of Treasury bonds, or OTA, declined more sharply, to 7.36% from 8.29%.

Borrowing nevertheless remains considerably more expensive than during the earlier development of the market. In June 2018, Cameroon’s average BTA cost stood at 2.81%, compared with nearly 7% in July 2026.

Bonds account for more than two-thirds of the stock

Of the CFA2.061 trillion in outstanding Cameroonian securities, Treasury bonds accounted for CFA1.394 trillion, or 67.6%. Treasury bills, which mature within one year, represented the remaining CFA666.9 billion, or 32.4%.

Primary dealers held CFA1.433 trillion in Cameroonian securities, equivalent to 69.5% of the total, while institutional investors held CFA562.1 billion, or 27.3%. Investors based in Cameroon owned CFA1.711 trillion, about 83% of the outstanding stock.

The BEAC-organized market has become a major source of state financing, although it is not Cameroon’s only regional funding channel. The government also raises capital through the Central African Stock Exchange (BVMAC). In 2023, it secured CFA176.3 billion there through a multi-tranche bond issue.

Source: Business in Cameroon

29, August 2026

CDC seeks government action over palm tree destruction at Esuke ⁰

The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) has appealed to the government to intervene after more than 100 palm trees were reportedly destroyed at Esuke in Mutengene, South West region, despite efforts to stop illegal crop destruction and encroachment on its land.

The latest incident occurred on Wednesday 26 August 2026, when CDC workers discovered extensive damage to oil palms in the area. The development follows the felling of 52 palm trees at Esuke, according to the corporation.

Workers say the continued destruction is threatening their livelihoods and could undermine recent investments in the corporation’s operations. They called on the government to take urgent action to protect CDC land and crops from what they described as encroachment by individuals and interest groups.

“We depend on the CDC to feed our families and take care of our needs. They recently brought a new oil mill, and now they are felling the palm trees, which means the mill will be useless. The CDC needs more land, not less,” said Akafor Jackline, a CDC worker.

CDC management said more than 100 palm trees have been reportedly destroyed at Esuke in Mutengene, South West region

The Cameroon Development Corporation is Cameroon’s second-largest employer after the state and has major agricultural operations across the South-West region. Its general manager, Franklin Ngoni Njie, says the dispute over the Esuke land dates back to an application made in 2023 by a group seeking control of the area.

He added the corporation had made clear during the commissioning of a signboard that the land could not be recommended for surrender. “First of all, the palms you see here were planted in 2016. They are at their prime, and this is a very high-yielding area. The yield per hectare here is extremely high,” Njie said.

According to the general manager, CDC had also received several disclaimers from the recognised chief of the Muslim community in Mutengene, who disputed the authority of the person claiming leadership of the group seeking the land.

CDC also said the group had misinterpreted correspondence from the presidency as authorisation to proceed with the land claim, adding that the government had suspended land transactions in Fako and on CDC land. “The Head of State has suspended all land transactions in Fako and on CDC land. For any surrender…” he said.

The dispute comes as CDC seeks to protect its agricultural holdings and sustain production following years of difficulties affecting the corporation. Workers said losing productive plantations could have consequences beyond the immediate destruction of the trees, particularly given the corporation’s role in providing employment and supporting households in the region.

But the Muslim community in Mutengene says its plans for the disputed area are also intended to deliver significant social and economic benefits. Chief Hanasani Iya, leader of the Muslim community in Mutengene, said the proposed development would include a large central mosque, a hospital and a centre for internally displaced people.

“We intend to build a central mosque of 3000 to 3500 capacity, a hospital and also build an IDP centre for our community,” he said as relayed by the Sun Newspaper, adding that the community had potential financial backing from partners in Arab countries in the Middle East who were willing to support the proposed projects.

CDC workers are thus urging the government to intervene before further palm plantations are destroyed and more CDC land is encroached upon.

Source: Panafricanvisions

27, August 2026

Biya regime’s takeover of General Bank deepens concerns over state’s growing role ⁰

Cameroon’s takeover of Société Générale Cameroun, now renamed General Bank of Cameroon (GBC), has become part of a broader concern over the state’s growing footprint in the banking industry, with the African Development Bank warning that repeated public recapitalizations and acquisitions are creating additional fiscal and governance risks.

In its 2026 Country Report on Cameroon, the AfDB describes the expansion of state involvement in banking as a “major source of concern” and cites the acquisition completed on May 12, 2026, as the latest example of the trend.

The warning, however, does not amount to a finding that GBC itself is financially weak. The report is not an audit of the acquired bank. Its concern is broader: the accumulation of government stakes in banks, the governance risks associated with those holdings and the growing interdependence between public finances and bank balance sheets.

The government acquired the 58.08% stake previously held by Société Générale Group. Since the state already owned 25.60% of the subsidiary, the transaction was expected to raise its interest to 83.68%, based on the terms announced when the sale agreement was signed in July 2025.

The government has presented the takeover as a move to strengthen financial sovereignty and ensure stability. When the transaction closed, the Finance Ministry said measures had been taken to ensure continuity of banking services and the security of deposits.

The IMF has raised similar concerns

The AfDB’s warning follows concerns previously raised by the International Monetary Fund.

In its 2026 consultation report, completed on March 9, the IMF said growing government ownership of banks was increasing fiscal, operational and governance risks. It counted eight institutions in which the state held a majority interest.

The IMF recommended clear rules for the management and supervision of state-owned banks, along with restructuring or resolution plans for troubled institutions. It also recommended that the government divest its holdings where feasible. The Fund’s executive board similarly urged caution over the expansion of the state’s footprint in the banking system.

The issue extends beyond GBC’s ownership.

Cameroonian banks’ holdings of government securities increased from 9.5% of their assets at the end of 2015 to 32% in June 2025. According to the IMF, several banks held more than half of their assets in claims on governments within the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, or CEMAC.

That concentration strengthens the link between banks’ financial health and governments’ fiscal positions. It can also reduce the resources available to finance businesses and households.

The AfDB also noted that public debt service absorbed 23.8% of Cameroon’s budget in 2025, up from 9.8% in 2013.

Banking indicators are still improving

The increase in these risks does not mean Cameroon’s banking system is experiencing a broad deterioration.

At the end of November 2025, the combined balance sheets of the country’s 18 operating banks had grown 9.3% to CFA13.593 trillion. Customer deposits rose 8.4% to CFA8.865 trillion, while lending increased 17% to CFA6.924 trillion.

Sixteen of the 18 banks were fully compliant with prudential requirements. The gross nonperforming loan ratio also declined to 12.9% in 2025 from 14.3% in 2024.

The AfDB’s concerns therefore center less on an immediate deterioration across the banking industry than on sovereign-risk concentration and the governance of institutions controlled by the government.

In discussions with the IMF, Cameroonian authorities described state interventions in banks as temporary measures designed to restructure troubled institutions, restore their profitability and eventually reduce government ownership.

However, public sources reviewed through Aug. 25, 2026, provide no specific timetable for the government to reduce its stake in GBC or bring additional shareholders into the bank.

The issue raised by the AfDB therefore extends beyond the original rationale for the acquisition. Attention now shifts to how GBC will be governed, how transparent its exposure to the public sector will be and under what conditions the government could eventually share or relinquish control.

Source: Business in Cameroon