On Tuesday, June 23, 2026, the President of the Groupement des Entreprises du Cameroun (GECAM), Célestin Tawamba, highlighted the critical challenges hindering Cameroon’s economic development.

According to the GECAM president, Cameroon’s economic growth rate slowed to 3.1% in 2025, a notable decline from 3.5% in 2024. This pace, he stressed, is insufficient to achieve the nation’s ambitious emergence target by 2035. For context, Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to achieve an average growth of 4.5%, while the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) anticipates 6.4%. In contrast, the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), where Cameroon holds the largest economy, is expected to reach only 2.6%.

This underperformance largely stems from the significant downturn in the oil sector. The hydrocarbons branch experienced a contraction of -6.9% in 2025, following an already substantial drop of -9.7% in 2024. This confirms, as noted by GECAM, that oil is no longer the primary engine driving the country’s economic expansion.

Cotton Production Falls Short

Other key sectors also present a less than optimistic picture for the Cameroonian economy. In the primary sector, growth decelerated from 3.6% to 1.7% within a single year. Industrial and export agriculture saw a dramatic shift, moving from a positive 8.7% growth in 2024 to a negative 3.2% in 2025. This downturn, Tawamba added, is a direct consequence of adverse climatic conditions and a reduction in exports across several agricultural sub-sectors.

Cotton serves as a stark illustration of this economic deterioration. Production reached only 286,000 tonnes, falling significantly short of the 400,000-tonne target. Export volumes for cotton decreased by 24%, while the value generated from these exports plummeted by 29.8%.

Industrial Sector Stagnation

“Even the most robust sectors are revealing underlying vulnerabilities. The cocoa season, for instance, recorded a bumper harvest of 309,518 tonnes. However, export volumes decreased by 9%, despite an 18% increase in export value driven by surging global prices. Coffee exhibits a similar trend: production increased from 10,562 to 11,637 tonnes, yet exported quantities fell by 2%, albeit offset by a 3.9% rise in revenue,” explained the head of the employers’ federation.

Concurrently, Cameroon’s reliance on food imports continues to grow. Maize imports rose by 4.5%, underscoring, in GECAM’s view, the persistent challenges in achieving national food security. The industrial sector is also struggling to fulfill its potential as a catalyst for economic transformation. Its growth advanced only marginally from 1.7% to 2%, while manufacturing industries experienced a slowdown from 2.9% to 2.2%. The business community attributes this challenging situation to high energy costs, logistical hurdles, financing constraints, and the overall lack of competitiveness within the productive apparatus.