Keep Yaoundé Clean: Governor Bea sets CFA 25,000 fine for illegal dumping ⁰

Authorities in Yaoundé have announced a CFA25,000 fine for illegal dumping in the capital, but key details on how the penalty will be enforced have yet to be made public.

Centre Region Governor Naseri Paul Bea announced the measure on September 1, 2026, after a tour with Mfoundi Senior Divisional Officer Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent through several neighborhoods in Yaoundé III and VI. The fine applies to anyone caught dumping household waste on public roads.

The officials visited areas from Nsimeyong to Maison Blanche in Biyem-Assi, as well as Montée de la Chapelle and Etoug-Ebe. The tour was intended to assess compliance with measures adopted after an August 28 meeting on sanitation in the capital, chaired by Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji.

The statement issued after the inspection did not identify the legal instrument that establishes the fine or specify which officials can record violations. It also provided no details on how penalties will be issued and collected, when enforcement will begin or how sanctioned residents can challenge a fine.

For now, CFA25,000 therefore remains an announced penalty whose enforcement procedures have yet to be defined.

Sanctions were already announced in January

The use of penalties to tackle illegal dumping is not new. On January 21, 2026, Atanga Nji had already announced legal action against people who left waste outside authorized disposal sites. He also instructed municipal authorities to clearly identify locations where dumping was prohibited.

The governor’s latest announcement adds a specific monetary penalty, although no public assessment of the earlier measures is available.

Authorities have not disclosed the number of violations recorded, citations issued or fines actually collected. Nor are there public data that would allow a comparison of illegal dumping before and after the previous warnings. Without those indicators, their effect on residents’ behavior cannot be measured.

The size of the fine alone will not determine whether it deters illegal dumping. Its impact will also depend on the frequency of inspections, the likelihood that offenders are penalized and whether authorities actually collect the fines. A penalty that is rarely enforced can have limited effect regardless of its amount.

Regular waste collection remains critical

A ban on dumping waste on public roads also requires accessible disposal points and a predictable collection service. Cameroon’s General Code of Decentralized Local Authorities assigns household waste collection, removal and treatment to the city council. Municipal police officers from the city council or district councils are responsible for enforcing public sanitation rules.

Authorities have also announced waste collection days every Friday. Public information, however, does not yet specify which neighborhoods will be covered, collection times or where households should leave their waste.

A clear schedule will be necessary to distinguish illegal dumping from waste placed near a collection point while residents wait for it to be removed.

Assessing the measure will therefore require information that is not yet available, including the number of inspections, penalties issued and collected, neighborhood coverage, collection frequency and changes in the prevalence of illegal dumping.

Source: Business in Cameroon