Cameroon

Cameroon is the structural anchor of Central Africa's CEMAC bloc, accounting for roughly 42% of the six-nation community's GDP — an economy nearly 2.5 times the size of its closest regional peer. With nominal GDP near $56–59bn and ~30.6 million people, it is the most diversified economy in the franc-zone heartland: oil and gas coexist with a genuine agricultural export base (cocoa, bananas, cotton, timber), a maturing logistics complex anchored by the deep-water Kribi port, and a CFA-franc peg to the euro that delivers rare monetary stability.

The 2025–26 macro story is resilient-but-constrained growth amid political overhang. The IMF projects growth slowing to 3.1% in 2025 — dragged by post-election unrest — before a modest 3.3% recovery, with public debt moderate at ~43% of GDP but a flagged 'high overall risk of debt distress.' A multi-year IMF programme continues to discipline fiscal policy, and Cameroon remains the indispensable maritime gateway for landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic.

The investment case is gated by acute political risk. President Paul Biya, 92 and in power since 1982, was declared winner of a disputed October 2025 election and sworn in for an eighth term, deepening an unresolved succession question with no clear transition mechanism. The Anglophone separatist conflict and Boko Haram pressure in the north are persistent, region-specific drags on an otherwise functional core economy.