AFD funding in Cameroon: where 622.8 billion FCFA are allocated

With an active portfolio exceeding 622.8 billion FCFA across 51 projects, the French Development Agency (AFD) remains Cameroon’s top bilateral donor. Yet beneath these impressive figures lies a sectoral breakdown of its 2025 commitments that raises critical questions: 44.2% of funds flow into infrastructure and urban development, while agriculture and food security—central to Cameroon’s import-substitution strategy—receive just 1.7%.

Sectoral allocation: infrastructure dominates, agriculture lags

The AFD’s 2025 engagement in Cameroon reveals a stark contrast in priorities. Infrastructure and urban development command the largest share at 44.2%, followed by financing for private financial institutions (35.9%), governance (6.8%), education and employment (6.4%). At the opposite end, agriculture and food security account for only 1.7%, water and sanitation 2.2%, and productive sectors 2.9%.

Urban projects take center stage

The AFD’s long-standing presence in Cameroon—dating back to 1960—reflects a consistent focus on large-scale infrastructure. The agency’s continuous annual commitments averaging 150 billion FCFA since 2002 underscore this strategy. A flagship 2025 initiative exemplifies this approach: five financing agreements totaling 175.5 million euros were signed in January, including a 150-million-euro sovereign loan for the Programme de lutte contre les inondations à Douala et Yaoundé (PLIDY). This project aims to mitigate recurrent flooding in the country’s two largest cities, addressing vulnerabilities in both populations and infrastructure. Alone, this initiative represents nearly five times the triennial budget Cameroon recently allocated to reviving its wheat sector.

Additional urban projects supported by the AFD include the Capitales Régionales program, which modernizes urban infrastructure in five secondary cities, and the Sporcap initiative, enhancing access to sports facilities.

Agriculture sidelined despite national priorities

Cameroon has placed food sovereignty at the core of its Stratégie nationale de développement 2020-2030 (SND30), with the Plan intégré d’import-substitution agropastoral et halieutique (PIISAH) (2024-2026) committing 1,500 billion FCFA to reduce reliance on rice, wheat, palm oil, and other staples. Against this backdrop, the AFD’s allocation of merely 1.7% of its 2025 commitments to agriculture and food security appears disproportionately low.

This minimal share contrasts sharply with the AFD’s broader African portfolio. Between 2018 and 2024, Proparco—its private-sector arm—doubled annual investments to over 7.6 billion euros, supporting agriculture, food security, and critical services. Yet, in Cameroon, these sectors remain underfunded. Historical programs like ACEFA have supported 8,000 productive projects, benefiting 260,000 farms and financing micro-projects in cereals, livestock, agri-food processing, and marketing. The program’s next phase aims to reach one million Cameroonian farms by 2035, as family-run farms produce nearly 80% of national agricultural output. Despite these efforts, their budgetary weight in the 2025 portfolio remains marginal compared to urban megaprojects.

Financial instruments: loans overshadow grants

The distribution of financial tools offers further insight. In 2025, sovereign loans accounted for 33.9% of commitments, followed by senior loans (23.2%), Contrats de Désendettement et de Développement (C2D) (16.2%), and guarantees (12.6%). Grants, the most suitable instrument for projects with immediate social impact but delayed financial returns—such as agriculture—represented only 6.3% of the total.

This structure inherently favors large, tangible infrastructure projects that can secure repayment. Agricultural initiatives, often dispersed across rural populations with uncertain yields and long-term horizons, are less compatible with traditional debt instruments. The underrepresentation of grants in the portfolio thus partially explains the relative underfunding of agriculture. Across Central Africa, 64% of AFD engagements during the reviewed period were allocated to infrastructure and urban development—Cameroon, as the region’s largest recipient, mirrors this continental trend.

Policy alignment: two strategies in tension

The SND30 sets clear targets: reducing food imports, developing agro-industry, and fostering local value addition. However, the AFD’s reliance on sovereign loans tends to prioritize high-visibility urban projects—such as roads, drainage systems, and equipment—over agricultural value chains that require years of diffuse, long-term support to yield measurable results. This misalignment raises a pivotal question: does Cameroon choose this distribution, or does it result from negotiations with its primary donor?