Cameroon’s 2025 budget increasees by 36 billion

By Synthia Lateu

Cameroon has unveiled its proposed state budget for the 2025 fiscal year, totaling 7,317.7 billion FCFA. This balanced budget, which aligns resources with expenditures, reflects an increase of 39.6 billion FCFA (0.5%) compared to 2024 budget which stood at 7,212.5 billion FCFA. The Finance Bill was submitted to the National Assembly for approval on Sunday, December 1, 2024.
During the plenary session chaired by House Speaker Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, Prime Minister and Head of Government Joseph Dion Ngute stated that economic growth for 2024 is estimated at 3.8%, despite the underperformance observed in the oil sector in 2023 and 2022. Highlighting some major achievements by the government in 2024, he noted that national economic activity has remained supported by the non-oil sector, with non-oil tax revenues standing at 2,78.4 billion FCFA against an annual target of 2,094.1 billion FCFA, representing a realization rate of 72% and an increase of 11% compared to 2023.
He mentioned that the state mobilized an amount of 729.8 billion FCFA from customs revenues as of September 30, 2024, against a target of 803.8 billion FCFA, achieving a realization rate of 80.8% compared to the same period in 2023. Additionally, efforts intensified during the year to combat illicit trafficking and crime, resulting in several seizures of goods valued at nearly 8 billion FCFA. Dion Ngute emphasised that the improvement in public treasury management and the survival of the financial sector have been fundamental, through actions related to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The public treasury allocated 724.2 billion FCFA for the coverage of the State Treasurer financing several development projects. Regarding debt service for the third quarter of 2024, it amounts to 885.8 billion FCFA, of which 420.5 billion FCFA is for external debt and 464.4 billion FCFA for domestic debt.
The management of the wage mass enabled the payment of salaries totaling 1022.111 billion FCFA by the end of September 2024. The amount of pensions paid stands at 191.9 billion FCFA, with payments of debts to secondary and primary school teachers amounting to 164.7 billion FCFA out of the 2 billion FCFA planned. Cameroon has further made regular payments to international organizations, exceeding 7.4 billion FCFA.

Economically, Dion Ngute emphasized the implementation of National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (SND30), the reconstruction of the crisis-hit North, Far North, North-West, and South-West regions, as well as the implementation of an agricultural import substitution plan aimed at reducing the trade balance deficit. The prioritized production items are wheat, rice, maize, and fish, with a total of 2,000 hectares of land secured.