Figures show Cameroonians received F CFA 230 billion from diaspora in 2022
A recent report from the World Bank has revealed that F CFA 230 billion was sent into Cameroon from its diaspora in 2022 alone. 65.8% was for local consumption, 12.71% for house projects, 14.5% was invested in income generating businesses and only 6.87% was saved in financial institutions.
As of 2018, 5.2 million Cameroonians were numbered abroad. Though the exact number of Cameroonians residing abroad is not known today as many are in irregularity, the contribution of the diaspora in 2022 had just a 5% increase compared to 2021and their contribution to the Public Investment Budget stands at 0.8%.
“This could be more if the dual nationality issue could be reviewed and a universal tax instituted for all people living in the diaspora,” Samuel Essaka, a Cameroonian opinionates.
Economic experts see the 0.8% contribution as insignificant compared to the input of people living in neighboring African countries. Nigerians in the diaspora had about 39.4% transfers into their country in 2022 alone. “The money already is not small. The problem is most of it goes for day to day consumption. If the money was put into income generating sources then more employments would be created and the economy would grow bigger and better,” Dr Jean Marie Biada argues.
According to the World Bank, most of the money sent into Cameroon is to reduce poverty and ameliorate the nutrition balance.
Some Cameroonians like Carlos Mekontchou think “reducing or suppressing custom fee on certain imports (cars) could be more profitable to Cameroon”.
Over the years, the issue of dual nationality has not received any favorable outcome from Cameroon’s legislators whereas Mali with 10% of its population abroad, allocates 7% of its budget to structures that handle the diaspora.
