Yaoundé has been hosting the inaugural National Women’s Entrepreneurship Expo (Snef) since June 6, 2024. The goal is to elevate women’s roles in Cameroon’s economic fabric. Organized by the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Associations of Cameroon (Fasfecam) and co-sponsored by the Ministry of SMEs, Social Economy, and Handicrafts, alongside the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family, the expo also receives support from the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce. The theme for this first edition is “Import Substitution in the Face of Cameroon’s Economic Structural Transformation.”
Snef serves as a platform to celebrate and enhance women’s participation in the local economy. Open to women entrepreneurs across sectors from startups to social enterprises and traditional market sellers, the expo showcases female expertise through exhibitions and discussions, advocating for greater female involvement in boosting productivity. The event aims to highlight the importance of equal opportunities in entrepreneurship and proposes concrete solutions to challenges faced by women in business.
Despite their dynamism, Cameroonian women entrepreneurs encounter various obstacles, particularly in accessing financing, a major concern. According to studies by the World Bank and government data, women lead 23% of manufacturing SMEs, despite comprising 51% of the population. Overall, they initiate 38% of businesses in Cameroon, with a significant presence in micro-enterprises (39%) and less representation in larger enterprises (14%). Women occupy 43% of leadership positions, predominantly in micro-enterprises (44%) compared to only 18% in larger companies.
This positive trend has nearly doubled the proportion of women leading businesses from 8% to 14% between 2009 and 2016, as noted by Guillemette Jaffrin, World Bank’s Deputy Operations Director in Cameroon. She emphasized last November that this momentum should not only continue but intensify to have a lasting impact on the national economy.
However, legislative challenges persist. The latest Women, Business and the Law report from the World Bank, published in March, gives Cameroon an overall score of 60 out of 100, below the regional average of 74 in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the country scores a perfect 100 for laws on women’s pensions, gaps remain, particularly in entrepreneurship (50) and wage equality (25), with the latter being Cameroon’s lowest scoring indicator.
The report provides a comprehensive assessment of barriers preventing women from entering the labor market and contributing to greater prosperity, highlighting the need to improve wage equality. The World Bank suggests that Cameroon should consider mandating equal pay for equal work of equal value, enabling women to work in hazardous jobs on an equal footing as men, and allowing women to work in industrial employment on an equal basis as men. These reforms are crucial for eliminating barriers that hinder economic equality and enabling women to contribute fully to Cameroon’s economic structural transformation.