Cameroun faces risk of losing 292 billion cfa francs in bad funding

During the joint portfolio review held in Yaoundé on July 14, 2026, the Cameroonian government and the African Development Bank (AfDB) identified a significant financial risk: seven approved operations totaling 373.419 million units of account (approximately 292 billion FCFA) are now at risk of cancellation. The issue stems not from a lack of resources but from internal procedural delays that have stalled project implementation.

It is crucial to note that these are not funds already disbursed that Cameroon would need to repay. Instead, these envelopes consist of loans and grants approved by the AfDB, but whose agreements were either not signed within the stipulated deadlines or for which no payments have been triggered despite legal formalization. Six of the cases fall into the first category, while the seventh pertains to the second. The total suspended funding amounts to 339.419 million units of account, equivalent to nearly 265 billion FCFA.

Ngoura-Yokadouma road project: a 207 billion FCFA bottleneck

The most pressing case is the Cross-Border Economic Basin Connectivity and Unlocking Program, which aims to upgrade the Ngoura-Yokadouma road in the East region. This project alone mobilizes 265.4 million units of account—about 207 billion FCFA—accounting for over 71% of the at-risk funding. Approved on February 18, 2026, the loan agreement remained unsigned at the time of the review.

Five other projects share this administrative paralysis. The Phase 2 support project for the Pan-African University, funded by the African Development Fund (ADF) with 3.64 million units of account and approved on December 19, 2024, is among the unsigned agreements. Additional stalled projects include the Minkouma hydroelectric development study on the Sanaga River (2.994 million units of account), the CUA-Y2 university city study (2.320 million units of account), and the Lake Chad risk prevention and stabilization program PROSTABLT (5.095 million units of account).

A regional strategy project also hangs in the balance: the transport and trade facilitation initiative, which includes the construction of a bridge over the Ntem River at the border with Equatorial Guinea. Approved on November 29, 2023, it combines an AfDB loan of 39.97 million units of account and an ADF loan of 20 million units of account.

PARZIK2: fifteen months without a single disbursement

The seventh project reveals a different but equally damaging issue. The Phase 2 road upgrade project for the Kribi industrial and port zone, known as PARZIK2, has a signed agreement in place. Yet, despite this, no disbursements had been recorded over the past fifteen months on its 34 million unit of account envelope (around 26.54 billion FCFA). The project now joins the risk zone, even though Kribi is a linchpin in the country’s industrial and port strategy.

Execution cycle twice as slow as the standard

The data from the review paints a troubling picture. The average time between funding approval and agreement signing stands at twelve months—four times the AfDB’s standard of three months. The average time for entry into force is sixteen months, against the expected five months. The first disbursement occurs, on average, twenty-one months after approval, whereas the target is twelve months. Nearly two years elapse before any funds are deployed on the ground.

The Minister of Economy, Planning, and Territorial Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, acknowledged the severity of the findings. He highlighted issues such as inadequate project preparation, prolonged public procurement processes, weak project management units, and delayed mobilization of counterpart funds that the state must provide alongside external resources. These inefficiencies inflate costs and undermine the country’s credibility with international lenders.

Since its first operation in Cameroon in November 1972, the AfDB has committed 130 loans and grants totaling an estimated 3,345 billion FCFA. The 2023-2028 program outlines eleven operations with approved funding valued at 833.8 billion FCFA. Yet, converting these commitments into tangible projects remains the weakest link in financial cooperation between Yaoundé and the panafrican institution.