By Louis Marie Kakdeu
The 2025 Finance Bill was finally submitted to the National Assembly almost 40 days late. A Cameroonian exception. The deputies have been requisitioned to work night and day to decide on the content. There’s no magic involved. And yet, this bill enshrines the budget of the Republic of Cameroon for the year 2025. In fact, it is one of the Republic’s most important documents. On analysis, there’s nothing to get excited about. On the contrary, the new provisions point to a difficult future for citizens. A law of this kind, so inclusive, had to pass through the filter of the social partners supposedly grouped within the Economic and Social Council. What do you expect? This is Cameroon, and nothing works! Here’s an analytical view of the 2025 Finance Bill:
Lack of budgetary and fiscal coherence
When asked what the economic vision of the State of Cameroon is, the Finance Act 2025 does not make it clear whether it is still in line with the SND30 or not. In fact, the economic challenge of the SND30 was to combat the extraversion of the national economy. In other words, we must stop depending entirely on foreign countries. In 2025, the Finance Act still enshrines foreign dependence. The only provision likely to be included in the import-substitution policy, which is supposed to be the policy of industrialising the country by substituting imported products, is article eight. But this provision has been formulated in a pernicious way, insofar as it excludes the substitution, even by application of the principle of reciprocity, of products contained in trade agreements. It therefore enshrines the status quo. Nothing will change. Yet the logic behind this is that we should not favor importing what can be produced locally. Why not? Because the economic agreements signed by the Cameroonian government have led to the destruction of the local economic fabric. The government has always made the mistake of putting unsubsidised local products in unfair competition with foreign products subsidised for production, transport to Cameroon and Cameroonian customs. This is simply one of the many crimes of the State!
Second National Vice-President SDF
Between 1995 (when Cameroon signed the WTO agreements) and 2005, 92% of local businesses in the agricultural sector, for example, were closed. Go and find out why we import 97% of the rice consumed in the country, 89% of milk, 100% of wheat, etc., when local potential exists. We already import manioc, maize, citrus fruits such as oranges, mandarins, etc. Cameroon’s economy is entirely extraverted. By 2024, it would be hard to find a single sector in surplus. According to an employers’ movement like ECAM, 80% of businesses died before 2 years of existence.
The State overtaxes sales (57%) instead of taxing profits, as recommended by the principle of proportionality. The tax burden is suffocating, and even in 2025, the State will continue to suffocate the few taxpayers left in the formal sector (around 30,000 for decades). Yet the tax base can be broadened horizontally. According to the INS, there are 3.5 million Informal Production Units (UPI) in Cameroon; that is, potential taxpayers that a serious government could capture by lowering taxes instead. Indeed, the informal sector has become the safe haven in Cameroon. People keep a shop window at the market and set up their stores at home in the neighborhoods. The economy operates in the black. Citizens shun taxes. It was time for a change of perspective, and the government missed the opportunity.
An economic policy brings together money, the budget and taxes, with the aim of achieving growth, employment, price stability and external equilibrium. In 2025, it is legitimate to ask where the government is taking us with the almost total renewal of the 2024 budget. Fiscal policy means using the State budget to influence the economic situation. What problem does the 2025 budget solve? Growth? How can we have growth without local production and investment? Employment and the fight against unemployment? How can we create jobs without improving the business climate? Cameroon’s fiscal policy favours bayam selam and clandestine transport (mototaxis): Is this the job security young people want? How can we combat the rural exodus with such an economic policy? Around 200,000 new people arrive in Douala and Yaoundé every year. Is this sustainable in terms of infrastructure, employment, health, education, housing, food, etc.? Shouldn’t we find endogenous solutions? A fiscal policy encompasses all the measures taken by the State to achieve these objectives: purchasing power, the food basket, decent work, social security, public health, etc. In short, well-being. Where are we headed in Cameroon? Nowhere, because everyone wants to leave. Cameroon has become the African champion in clandestine emigration. Bravo to the Renewal government, which had sold the illusion of prosperity.
Sharp rise in living costs
Inflation rose to 14% in 2024 for foodstuffs, which directly concern a large number of citizens. What does this mean? It means that to be able to buy the same goods and services as in 2024, the budget would have had to increase in proportion to inflation, i.e. by almost FCAF 1,000 billion. And I mean to maintain the same standard of living as in 2024. I’m not even talking about living better than in 2024. What we need to understand is that incomes have fallen by 14% in 2024, and we’ll have to spend around FCFA 1,400 to buy the good or service that cost FCFA 1,000 in 2024. It should be noted that there are no plans to increase salaries on the horizon, and people will have to redouble their efforts to make ends meet. The budget of the Republic of Cameroon had to pass the FCAF 8,000 billion mark to reach this objective. An increase of FCAF 39 billion compared with 2024 is therefore ridiculous and insignificant for Cameroon. A sharp rise in production costs.
The Cameroonian government is planning to increase the price of fuel at the pump. This is economic suicide in a context where we have ample choice. Let’s calculate together! In December 2024, the cost price of a liter of super at the port of Douala is FCFA 369. The price at the pump is FCFA 840, thanks to the government’s only controversial choice. If the government were a social-democrat like the rest of us, then we could sell a liter of super at FCFA 400. But they’re mafia-like and capitalist. They’ve set up a chain of 9 players in the process of importing. Each player gets his share of the cake. It’s already the choice to go through an importer to buy the fuel and explain that the government subsidises the fuel insofar as it pays CASH for the import. What madness! Why go through an intermediary to whom you pay CASH when you could also buy directly from traders with this CASH? Why even buy from traders who speculate when you could order directly from Dangote, for example? The Cameroonian citizen is paying for the Cameroonian government’s choice of mafia and capitalism. It enshrines the monopoly of a few individuals and does not encourage free competition. Why is there only one super supplier in Cameroon? Is it his father’s house? You have to understand that on each liter in this month of December 2024, the consumer pays 41 FCFA in premium and 16 FCFA in margin to the mafia-like importer and big baby we’re feeding and who has no financial resources to work. Let’s move on! Why do we choose to have both marketers and sub-distributors at petrol stations? Why does the consumer have to pay a margin of FCFA 16 to the sub-distributor that we can do away with? So where does 2025’s profit go? What is the point of this structure, since the citizen-consumer never benefits from the drop in the price of a barrel of oil on the international market? The Cameroonian government informs us that the country’s oil revenues, as an oil producer, have fallen as a result of this drop in the price per barrel, but paradoxically explains that prices have to rise at the pump because of the international situation. Yaaaaa! What mafia? Côte d’Ivoire has no CSPH and things are going very well. We’re told that CSPH takes care of transport, but what about SCDP? We need to eliminate duplication!
Then, on top of the hefty special tax of FCFA 110, they add 4 taxes for SONARA (infrastructure, modernisation, support, etc.) amounting to around FCFA 75. This adds up to several hundred billion euros, which for years would have been used to build several brand-new refineries. But where is the money going that consumers are being asked to pay for SONARA? Worse still, the state levies 8 times the VAT on a liter of fuel, not to mention customs duties (2 times). Let’s be serious! In December 2024, what the government calls a subsidy is called “state support/reimbursement”, which now amounts to just 48 FCFA. In other words, the State is surcharging nearly 60% on a liter of fuel (nearly 500 FCFA) and reimbursing FCFA 48. Who are we kidding? It’s time to get serious in this country and find out what we want. Under the passive gaze of the citizen, we’re not going to spend time trying to justify Gencoregates, cangates and the like, when the country has the necessary expertise to develop. Tax policy determines the incentives for work, investment and innovation, which influence a country’s potential for growth and development. In normal countries, it seeks to strike a balance between securing the revenues governments need to finance their social and economic programmes, and strengthening the tax system’s contributions to inclusive, sustainable economic growth. Sustainable, because we can’t keep putting future generations into debt for nothing and destroying the environment! So what is the Cameroonian government’s fiscal policy? Where are we headed? Can we vote our poor FCFA 1800 billion investment budget and allow ourselves to encourage higher production costs? If we produce more expensively in Cameroon, we’ll also sell more expensively. Transport will also be more expensive, with the announced increase in fuel prices. Where are we headed?
I’m really wondering, and I’ll stop here. We could write a thesis on the folly of the Cameroonian regime. But it’s the folly of all of us, insofar as we’ve let it happen and we’re about to let it happen in 2025.
The solution to Cameroon’s political and economic stagnation is called “citizen engagement”. If you continue to think that KAKDEU are stupid because they have migrated from civil society to politics, then you will have made the choice to continue barking so that the devastating caravan continues to pass as always and without scruples.
It’s up to us!
#WeLiveTogetherAndWeWillDieTogether