Yaoundé: Biya regime slashes public sector job openings by half in 2024 ⁰

Cameroon’s Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform, Joseph Lé, has recently authorized a series of recruitment competitions for the public sector. A total of 1,210 positions are available for 2024, marking a nearly 50% decline from the 2,235 positions opened in 2023. This reduction comes after the number of openings surpassed 2,000 for the first time since 2021.

“This adjustment reflects specific personnel needs expressed by administrations in line with their organizational frameworks, aligned with the objectives of the National Development Strategy (SND30),” explained Minister Joseph Lé during a press conference held on June 21, 2023, in Yaoundé.

Since 2021, the government has been tightening public sector recruitment to control the state’s unsustainable wage bill. From 2012 to 2021, the payroll ballooned from CFA706.1 billion to CFA1,080.1 billion, according to Ministry of Finance data. In the 2024 budget, under review by parliamentarians, it is expected to reach around CFA1,500 billion.

To curb the growth of this wage bill, the number of recruits into the Cameroonian public sector dropped sharply from 5,411 and 5,179 positions in 2019 and 2018 respectively, to just 1,536 in 2021.

Source: Business in Cameroon