Cameroon is leaning on AFG Financial institution Cameroon, based by Ivorian multimillionaire Bernard Koné Dossongui, to refinance a slice of unpaid state payments as strain on the treasury retains home borrowing steadily elevated.
A month-to-month public debt report issued by the Finance Ministry and the Autonomous Sinking Fund, identified by its French initials CAA, reveals that the central authorities’s home debt, excluding overdue payables and so known as floating debt, stood at 4,246 billion CFA francs ($7.59 billion) as of Sept. 30, 2025, about 12.8% of gross home product. The report lists AFG Financial institution because the counterparty on debt project transactions that transferred as much as 50 billion CFA francs ($89.4 million) in state receivables to the financial institution throughout 2025.
The most important block, 30 billion CFA francs ($53.6 million), is tied to receivables linked to Globeleq’s Kribi and Dibamba energy initiatives, cited within the report as KPDC and DPDC. Two different assignments are valued at 10 billion CFA francs ($17.9 million) every, involving the Port Authority of Douala and the state telecommunications firm Camtel.
Debt assignments are a type of money advance. As an alternative of ready on the state, a provider or public entity assigns its declare to a financial institution, which pays instantly at agreed phrases after which collects from the treasury later. Officers view the strategy as a solution to hold initiatives shifting and cut back fee backlogs with out an abrupt money drain.
Arrears have been a recurring drawback. The Worldwide Financial Fund has beforehand pointed to amassed arrears, together with industrial debt, as a drag on personal sector exercise and a supply of fiscal danger in Cameroon, the place companies typically depend on authorities contracts for income.
Dossongui’s group has positioned itself to learn from that financing hole. Dossongui constructed Atlantic Group over a long time, and its monetary holding firm, AFG Holding, operates banks, insurers, microfinance corporations and funding banking models throughout francophone Africa. In Cameroon, the lender is related to the Banque Atlantique Cameroun franchise that Dossongui’s community has managed via its holding buildings.
The CAA report reveals structured financial institution debt rising alongside treasury invoice issuance, reflecting a broader shift towards home markets to plug price range holes. Home debt of the general public sector, together with overdue payables, was listed at 5,045 billion CFA francs ($9.02 billion) on the finish of September.
Authorities officers haven’t printed the pricing or maturity of the AFG assignments. Bankers say such offers usually hinge on the credibility of reimbursement schedules and the state’s capability to handle money in a good funding setting.
