Cameroon stands as a cornerstone of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group’s regional portfolio in Central Africa, commanding nearly 30% of its total commitments. The institution’s 2025 activity report reveals an outstanding amount of 949.6 million euros, equivalent to approximately 623 billion FCFA, distributed across 51 ongoing projects. This substantial volume places Yaoundé ahead of other regional capitals, including 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 core AFD itself accounts for 875.8 million euros, while its private sector financing subsidiary, Proparco, mobilizes 61.8 million euros. Expertise France complements these efforts with 12 million euros. The overall portfolio comprises 47 AFD projects and 4 Expertise France initiatives. When focusing solely on AFD’s contributions, Cameroon alone captures 30.7% of a regional total of 2.8 billion euros as of December 31, 2025.
Infrastructure and urban development: core pillars of intervention
The French financier’s regional strategy clearly prioritizes major infrastructure projects. The report underscores that infrastructure development remains central to its intervention framework across Central Africa, highlighting emblematic projects such as the Nachtigal hydroelectric dam in Cameroon and the modernization of the Transgabonais railway. This strategic focus is consistently reflected in the commitments made within Cameroon during 2025.
Within this scope, infrastructure and urban development absorb a significant 44.2% of the total funding. Support for private financial institutions follows closely at 35.9%, ahead of governance initiatives (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 distribution of sectoral funding reflects the nation’s substantial infrastructure 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 examination by budgetary analysts. Sovereign loans represent the primary channel, constituting 33.9% of the total. Following this are 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 finally, Technical Expertise and Experience Exchange Funds (FEXTE) at 0.6%.
In essence, more than half of these financial contributions take the form of reimbursable instruments. This reality underscores that Cameroon’s position as the leading regional beneficiary comes with future debt servicing obligations, the sustainability of which will depend on the effective economic profitability of the supported projects. While C2D, guarantees, European credits, and grants soften this financial profile, they do not alter its predominant nature.
Within the private sector, Proparco notably financed Prometal, which the report positions as a key driver for industrialization and local transformation. Rural-focused programs like SeptentrionEst and SECAL target territorial resilience, entrepreneurship, and food security in the northern regions, areas particularly vulnerable to climatic and security challenges.
Converting leadership into tangible economic gains
Cameroon’s prominent standing in the AFD Group’s portfolio serves as a significant financial indicator, yet it is not an ultimate economic verdict. 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 Cameroon’s portfolio on productivity, urban services, or the stimulation of private investment.
For Cameroonian authorities, the true test will unfold in the execution phase. The quality of implementation, the effective delivery of works, their operational efficiency, and their 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 across the nation.
