With an active portfolio exceeding 622.8 billion FCFA spread across 51 distinct initiatives, the French Development Agency (AFD) firmly retains its position as Cameroon’s foremost bilateral financial partner. Yet, beneath this impressive financial commitment, a closer examination of its 2025 sectoral allocations reveals choices that warrant deeper scrutiny. A substantial 44.2% of these funds are directed towards infrastructure and urban development, starkly contrasting with a mere 1.7% allocated to agriculture and food security – a sector Yaoundé has explicitly identified as central to its import-substitution strategy.

The figures speak volumes. As of December 31, 2024, the AFD group’s portfolio in Cameroon stood at over 594 billion FCFA, representing the largest share of the approximately 1,705.4 billion FCFA committed across Central Africa. By 2025, this volume further increased to approximately 622.8 billion FCFA, distributed among 51 projects – 47 managed directly by AFD and 4 by Expertise France, according to the group’s activity report. The breakdown among the three entities of the group is clear: 574.4 billion FCFA for AFD, 40.5 billion FCFA for Proparco (its private sector subsidiary), and over 7.8 billion FCFA for Expertise France.

What this overarching figure fails to convey is the granular sectoral distribution, which provides crucial insights. In 2025, infrastructure and urban development absorbed 44.2% of the group’s commitments. Funding for private financial institutions accounted for 35.9%. Governance received 6.8%, while education, training, and employment secured 6.4%. At the opposite end of the spectrum, agriculture and food security garnered a modest 1.7%, water and sanitation 2.2%, and the productive sector 2.9%.

Infrastructure: a deliberate and historically consistent choice

This concentrated focus on infrastructure is no mere coincidence; it reflects a long-standing strategic rationale and addresses genuine national needs. AFD has maintained a presence in Cameroon since 1960, and the nation has historically been one of the primary beneficiaries of its financing in Africa, with average annual commitments nearing 150 billion FCFA since 2002. The flagship project for 2025 perfectly exemplifies this orientation.

On January 21, five financing agreements totaling 175.5 million euros were formally signed at the Ministry of Economy. The most significant of these was for the Program to Combat Flooding in Douala and Yaoundé (PLIDY), backed by a sovereign loan of 150 million euros. This initiative aims to mitigate the recurrent flooding that plagues Cameroon’s two largest urban centers, with the overarching goal of substantially reducing the vulnerability of both populations and essential infrastructure. This single project alone represents nearly five times the entire three-year budget recently allocated by the Cameroonian government to revitalize its wheat sector. AFD has also supported the Regional Capitals program, financed via the C2D mechanism, which seeks to modernize urban infrastructure in five secondary cities, alongside the Sporcap initiative designed to enhance access to sports facilities.

Agriculture remains on the periphery

Here, the contrast is striking. The Cameroonian government has enshrined food sovereignty as a foundational pillar of its National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (SND30). Furthermore, the Integrated Agro-pastoral and Fisheries Import-Substitution Plan (PIISAH) 2024-2026 has committed 1,500 billion FCFA to reduce reliance on imported rice, wheat, palm oil, and other essential commodities. Against this backdrop, AFD’s allocation of just 1.7% of its 2025 commitments to agriculture and food security raises significant questions.

This minuscule share stands in stark contrast to AFD’s activities in other nations. Between 2018 and 2024, Proparco successfully doubled its annual financing in Africa, mobilizing over 7.6 billion euros (approximately 1.2 billion annually), with a notable emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture and food security, financial systems, and essential services.

These stated continental priorities do not appear to translate with the same intensity into the Cameroonian portfolio. Despite this, robust precedents exist. AFD previously supported 8,000 productive projects in Cameroon through the ACEFA program, which benefited 260,000 agricultural holdings and funded micro-projects in cereals, livestock, agro-processing, and commercialization. The program’s consolidation phase now targets one million Cameroonian family farms by 2035, recognizing that these two million family farms account for nearly 80% of the national agricultural output. While these achievements are real, their budgetary weight within the 2025 portfolio remains marginal when compared to the large-scale urban projects.

Sovereign loans at the core of engagement

The distribution by financial instrument illuminates another facet of the portfolio. In 2025, sovereign loans constituted 33.9% of commitments, followed by senior loans at 23.2%, C2D at 16.2%, and guarantees at 12.6%. Grants, which are non-repayable and thus ideally suited for social impact projects without immediate financial returns (such as in agriculture), represented only 6.3% of the total. This financial architecture operates under its own logic. Major infrastructure projects are naturally conducive to sovereign loans because they generate tangible assets that can secure repayment.

Agricultural projects, conversely, often involve dispersed populations, uncertain yields, and lengthy return horizons – conditions less compatible with conventional debt instruments. Consequently, the limited share of grants within the portfolio may partially explain the relative underfunding of the agricultural sector. Across Central Africa, over the period under review, 64% of AFD’s commitments were directed towards infrastructure and development projects. Cameroon, as the primary regional recipient, accurately mirrors this continental orientation. Does Yaoundé actively choose this distribution, or is it a consequence of negotiations with its donor? This is a question worth considering.

SND30 and AFD: two strategies seeking alignment

The SND30 articulates precise targets for structural transformation, including reducing food imports, fostering agro-industry, and creating local added value. However, the operational logic of a donor whose primary instruments are sovereign loans tends to favor high-visibility urban projects – roads, drainage, equipment – over agricultural value chains that demand years of diffused support before yielding measurable results.