The French Development Agency (AFD) remains Cameroon’s top bilateral donor, with an active portfolio exceeding 622.8 billion FCFA spread across 51 projects. Yet beneath these impressive figures lies a sectoral breakdown that raises questions: in 2025, 44.2% of funds flow into infrastructure and urban development, while agriculture and food security—central to Yaoundé’s import-substitution strategy—receive just 1.7%.
Infrastructure takes the lion’s share
At year-end 2024, AFD’s Cameroon portfolio totaled 594 billion FCFA, the largest share of its 1,705.4 billion FCFA commitment across Central Africa. By 2025, this climbed to 622.8 billion FCFA, allocated as follows: 574.4 billion for AFD itself, 40.5 billion for Proparco (its private-sector arm), and 7.8 billion for Expertise France.
The sectoral split reveals a clear bias: infrastructure and urban development command 44.2% of commitments, followed by private financial institutions at 35.9%, governance at 6.8%, education and employment at 6.4%. Agriculture, food security, water, sanitation, and productive sectors trail far behind.
This focus is no accident. AFD has operated in Cameroon since 1960—longer than in most African nations—and the country consistently ranks among its top three beneficiaries. In January 2025, five financing agreements totaling €175.5 million were signed, including a €150 million sovereign loan for the Programme de lutte contre les inondations à Douala et Yaoundé (PLIDY), aimed at mitigating chronic flooding in the two largest cities. The initiative alone accounts for nearly five times Cameroon’s three-year budget for wheat-sector revival.
Other urban-centric projects include the Capitales Régionales program—co-funded via the Debt Reduction and Development Contract (C2D)—modernizing secondary cities, and the Sporcap initiative expanding sports infrastructure.
Agriculture sidelined despite national priorities
Cameroon’s Stratégie nationale de développement 2020-2030 (SND30) and the 2024-2026 Plan intégré d’import-substitution agropastoral et halieutique (PIISAH) earmark 1,500 billion FCFA to slash rice, wheat, palm oil, and other staple imports. Yet AFD’s 2025 allocation to agriculture and food security stands at a mere 1.7%.
This gap is striking when compared to AFD’s continental approach. Between 2018 and 2024, Proparco doubled annual agricultural and food-security financing in Africa, mobilizing €7.6 billion overall. In Cameroon, however, such projects remain marginal despite past successes—like the ACEFA program, which supported 8,000 agribusiness ventures, reaching 260,000 farms and funding grain production, livestock, agro-processing, and marketing. The initiative’s next phase aims to scale to one million farms by 2035, highlighting the contradiction between stated priorities and actual funding.
Debt instruments shape sectoral outcomes
Loan structures further explain the imbalance. In 2025, sovereign loans accounted for 33.9% of commitments, senior loans 23.2%, C2D funds 16.2%, guarantees 12.6%, and grants—a tool better suited to long-term social impact like agriculture—just 6.3%. Infrastructure’s tangible assets align with debt-based financing, while agriculture’s dispersed beneficiaries, uncertain yields, and long horizons struggle to meet repayment criteria.
This financial architecture reflects a broader regional trend: 64% of AFD’s Central Africa portfolio targets infrastructure and urban development. As Cameroon’s largest regional recipient, it mirrors this continental orientation. The question lingers: Is this allocation a product of Yaoundé’s negotiation stance or an outcome of AFD’s lending instruments?
Aligning SND30 and AFD’s priorities
The SND30’s structural transformation goals—import reduction, agro-industry growth, and local value addition—clash with AFD’s preference for high-visibility urban projects yielding measurable, short-term results. While roads, drainage systems, and sports facilities deliver immediate impact, agricultural value chains demand years of diffuse support before tangible outcomes emerge. Bridging this divide will require rethinking financing tools to better serve Cameroon’s development blueprint.