Célestin Tawamba paints bleak picture of Cameroon’s economy in 2025

On June 23, 2026, Célestin Tawamba, president of the Groupement des Entreprises du Cameroun (GECAM), delivered a sobering assessment of the country’s economic trajectory.

Cameroon’s gross domestic product grew by only 3.1% in 2025, down from 3.5% in 2024. Tawamba called this pace incompatible with the nation’s ambition to achieve emerging status by 2035. In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow at 4.5%, the WAEMU zone at 6.4%, and the CEMAC region—where Cameroon is the largest economy—at a meager 2.6%.

The underperformance is largely due to the collapse of the oil sector. Hydrocarbons contracted by 6.9% in 2025 after a 9.7% drop the year before, confirming that petroleum is no longer the primary growth driver.

286,000 tonnes

Other sectors provide little reassurance. Growth in the primary sector halved from 3.6% to 1.7%. Industrial and export agriculture swung from +8.7% in 2024 to -3.2% in 2025, hurt by adverse climate conditions and declining exports. Cotton is a stark example: production reached only 286,000 tonnes against a target of 400,000. Export volumes fell 24% and their value plummeted 29.8%.

1.7% to 2%

“Even the most performing sectors show fragilities,” Tawamba explained. “The cocoa campaign set a record of 309,518 tonnes, but export volumes dropped 9%, though higher global prices lifted export value 18%. Coffee followed a similar trend: production rose from 10,562 to 11,637 tonnes, while export volumes slipped 2%, offset by a 3.9% revenue increase.”

At the same time, Cameroon’s food dependency is deepening. Maize imports grew 4.5%, underscoring persistent food security challenges. The industrial sector is struggling to act as a transformation engine, with growth stuck between 1.7% and 2%. Manufacturing slowed from 2.9% to 2.2%. The business leader attributed these issues to high energy costs, logistical hurdles, financing constraints, and a lack of competitiveness in the production apparatus.