Business Opportunities in Cameroon

Although Cameroon is endowed with abundant natural resources, steady economic growth, and a key location in central Africa, the investment climate in Cameroon is plagued by endemic corruption and a heavy-handed and slow moving bureaucracy. International watchdog organizations rank Cameroon as one of the lowest in the world in various global indices on corruption, transparency, and ease of doing business. These poor ratings underscore the challenging environment in which businesses operate here. Cameroon has many opportunities for economic investment in the agricultural, mining, transportation, telecommunications and information technology, construction equipment, and the extractive industries. It boasts the largest and most diverse economy of the six countries in the Central African Monetary and Economic Union (CEMAC) sub-region, which is home to over 50 million people. The zone has a central bank and a common currency - the CFA franc. Despite slow but steady economic growth hovering around 4 to 5% over the last half decade, the government of the Republic of Cameroon (GRC) has started to publicly recognize that it must improve its investment climate. The government hopes that growth rates will surge with increased incentives to private sector businesses, but it has yet to demonstrate that it is committed to real investment climate reform. The government's Vision 2035, a roadmap to become an emerging economy by 2035, stresses the importance of large-scale infrastructure development and foreign direct investment. In April 2013, the GRC enacted an Investment Promotion Incentives Law - a package of liberal incentives offering foreign investors opportunities to bring in needed capital to boost the economy. Despite this blue print, foreign direct investment (FDI) continues to stagnate. Despite the many challenges, some U.S. businesses have found rewards in Cameroon. Since the United States played a major role in the construction of the Chad-Cameroon petroleum pipeline in 2000, U.S. investments continue to be the single largest in terms of overall volume. Historically, Europe has dominated the Cameroonian business environment, but recent years have witnessed the emergence of new investors such as China and other African nations like Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, South Africa, and Nigeria. Opportunities for U.S. investors exist in all sectors of the economy, especially in infrastructure, which must improve before other sectors can develop, although investors from other countries often have advantages in infrastructure. Specific opportunities exist in electricity, transport (roads and railways), telecommunications and information technology, and the extractive industries. However, even when successful in doing business here, companies often must spend years negotiating deals and gaining final approvals with the Cameroonian bureaucracy.