Cameroon alone accounts for nearly 30% of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group’s regional portfolio across Central Africa. The French institution’s 2025 activity report reveals an outstanding commitment of 949.6 million euros, equivalent to approximately 623 billion FCFA, distributed across 51 ongoing projects. This substantial volume positions Yaoundé ahead of Kinshasa (741.4 million euros), Libreville (646.3 million euros), Brazzaville (484.9 million euros), N’Djamena (308.7 million euros), and Bangui (144.7 million euros).
A detailed breakdown by entity clarifies the structure of this financial engagement. The AFD itself contributes 875.8 million euros, with its private sector subsidiary, Proparco, mobilizing 61.8 million euros. Expertise France completes the framework with 12 million euros. The overall portfolio is composed of 47 AFD projects and 4 Expertise France initiatives. Focusing solely on the AFD’s scope, Cameroon captures 30.7% of a regional total of 2.8 billion euros as of December 31, 2025.
Infrastructure and urban development: core areas of intervention
The French financier’s regional strategy clearly prioritizes major infrastructure. The report underscores that infrastructure development remains central to its intervention strategy in Central Africa, citing the Nachtigal hydroelectric dam in Cameroon and the modernization of the Transgabonais railway as emblematic projects. This strategic focus is also evident in the commitments made within Cameroon during 2025.
Within Cameroon, infrastructure and urban development absorb a significant 44.2% of the funding. Support for private financial institutions follows at 35.9%, ahead of governance (6.8%), education, training, and employment (6.4%), the productive sector (2.9%), water and sanitation (2.2%), and finally, agriculture and food security (1.7%). Among the flagship operations, the Yaoundé and Douala Flood Control Project aims to mitigate the exposure of these two major metropolitan areas to recurring climatic events.
This hierarchical allocation of funds reflects the country’s substantial equipment deficit and the long-standing financial cooperation between France and Cameroon. It also signifies a deliberate choice: to concentrate resources on initiatives that can, in the long term, reduce logistical and energy costs for both businesses and households.
A financial architecture largely driven by debt
The composition of financial instruments deployed in 2025 warrants close attention from budgetary analysts. Sovereign loans represent the primary channel, constituting 33.9% of the total. These are followed by senior loans (23.2%), Debt Reduction-Development Contracts (C2D) at 16.2%, guarantees (12.6%), credits delegated by the European Union (7.1%), grants (6.3%), and the Technical Expertise and Experience Exchange Fund (FEXTE) at 0.6%.
In essence, over half of the financial support takes the form of repayable instruments. This reality implies that Cameroon’s status as the leading regional beneficiary comes with future debt servicing obligations, the sustainability of which will depend on the effective economic profitability of the underlying projects. While C2D, guarantees, European credits, and grants temper this profile, they do not alter its predominantly debt-based nature.
In the private sector segment, Proparco notably financed Prometal, which the report highlights as a catalyst for industrialization and local transformation. The SeptentrionEst and SECAL programs, focused on rural areas, target territorial resilience, entrepreneurship, and food security in the northern regions, which are particularly vulnerable to climatic and security shocks.
Converting leadership into tangible economic gains
Cameroon’s prominent position in the AFD Group’s portfolio serves as a financial indicator, not an economic outcome. While the institution’s report does publish aggregated results for projects completed between 2020 and 2025 across agriculture, health, education, and sanitation, these are presented at a regional scale. Such data does not allow for isolating the specific impact of the Cameroonian portfolio on productivity, urban services, or the stimulation of private investment.
For Cameroonian authorities, the true test lies in execution. The quality of implementation, the effective delivery of infrastructure, its operational efficiency, and its capacity to reduce economic costs will ultimately determine the return on these 623 billion FCFA. Maintaining the top regional portfolio ranking is less critical than demonstrating, with concrete figures, that these commitments are genuinely transforming the productive apparatus and essential services within the country.
