By Louis-Marie KAKDEU
In addition to all the political crises that the country is going through, I indicated on December 1, 2025 that the government did not always understand the meaning of the import-substitution policy given the poor quality of the 2026 finance bill voted that day in Parliament.
On December 2, 2025, the Minister in charge of Trade gave us a good illustration of the facts that I noted. In a press release made public, he celebrated the arrival of a “renowned Indian company” to buy “large quantities of cassava from Cameroon”. Worse, he explains that it is an “excellent opportunity to seize, likely to contribute to the reduction of unemployment in our country” not without indicating that this is “in line with the seven-year term of Greatness and Hope”. This situation is improbable and I suggest that we decipher together this umpteenth inappropriate political decision.
Cassava is a staple food for populations in 9 out of 10 regions in Cameroon. It is also a main input for local industry. In 2025, the country is going through a situation of production deficit to meet local needs. National cassava production is around 19 million tonnes per year, which is insufficient to satisfy an estimated national demand of 50 million tonnes, creating a deficit of 31 million tonnes. The government cannot encourage the export of the country’s little production without worsening the social crisis. I explain: if Cameroonians only had 2 meals a day, the government can no longer support a policy which aims to reduce them one meal. The Minister of Commerce constantly gets the wrong job: he is in charge of consumption and he behaves like a minister in charge of production, which disrupts the social balance. It is not up to him to fight against unemployment. He must fight against inflation or even against the high cost of living without behaving like a trader or like the minister of traders. As the representative of the State, he is rather the minister of consumers, which he does not always understand.
If the Minister of Commerce played his role well, he would not behave like a bayam sellam. It would, for example, create agricultural or food exchanges which allow, as in Switzerland, to have full control of the country’s real production level in real time with a view to favoring or not the entry or exit (import or export) of certain products. Clearly, we structure national producers by sectors of activity and we ensure that we know the real level of production in the country per day, per week or per month. This allows us to know what quantity and quality of product the country can import or export: In the event of a deficit, we import the quantity necessary to meet domestic demand and we only encourage exports in the event of a surplus. We can only enter the long circuit (import or export) if the short circuit (local or national market) is saturated or empty depending on the case. In December 2025, the Minister of Commerce should not favor the export of cassava from Cameroon. On the contrary, it was to encourage the import of 31 million tonnes to meet immediate demand while waiting for the ministers in charge of production (agriculture, SME/SMI, etc.) to take care of local production with a view to creating wealth and growth.
One could oppose the argument according to which production activity is today market oriented (Market Oriented), that is to say that we first find the market before producing. This approach means that the market is free and the government does not intervene to create unfair competition through incentives that benefit foreigners against locals. The Minister of Commerce does not have to advertise a foreign company; he just has to let the “renowned Indian company” come and face the market in its reality and take care only of regulation. This is what the government does in any normal country. For example, between the years 2022 and 2023, India itself, the world’s leading producer of rice, had imposed various restrictions and bans on the export of certain varieties in order to control internal prices (fight against inflation) and ensure its food security. The ban on exports of non-basmati white rice, initially put in place in July 2023, was only lifted in September and October 2024, following a better-than-expected harvest in 2024 and sufficient national stocks. As it stands, Cameroon lives in a situation of serious food insecurity, having no stocks. Also, the ban on exporting broken rice to India, in force since September 2022, was only lifted in March 2025. I could also take the example of Russia which is implementing export quotas for cereals, including wheat, to guarantee national food security and stabilize domestic prices. For part of the 2025 season, a quota of 10.6 million tonnes of wheat had been set by the government. These measures are cyclical and depend on the real situation of supply and demand on the market.
Our government does not understand these issues probably for selfish and clientelistic reasons; the orientation of public policies is not pro-Cameroonian, which is the basis of our opposition. A system of import and export quotas (quotas) must be used to regulate the local market. I will take two concrete examples from the current market: In November and December 2025, local production of onions is already available and Cameroon continues to suffer from the massive importation of onions from Nigeria. As a result, rotten onions are already littering our markets, undermining the income of local growers and traders. Where is the Minister of Commerce during this time? We cannot encourage the importation of tomatoes when tomatoes are rotting on the market as was the case again this year. The government must work for the national interest and for the collective interest. Regulation is not synonymous with repression of locals as we may regret when reading our financial laws. Regulation helps maintain social and economic balances.
We are very far from the goal and every day the country moves ever closer to a severe social crisis. It’s up to us!
Louis-Marie Kakdeu, MPA, PhD and HDR
Second Vice – SDF National President