Cameroon, like many African economies, has faced a tightening of access to traditional external financing sources for several years. This includes concessional multilateral loans, public development aid, and increasingly expensive international bond markets. In this challenging environment, mobilizing domestic savings, both public and private, has become a strategic imperative. This is precisely the role fulfilled by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDEC), which became operational on January 20, 2023, through a presidential decree, fifteen years after its legal establishment by the 2008 law, as explained by observer Patrick Duprix Anicet Mani.
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An established model: lessons from the French Caisse des Dépôts
The French experience clearly demonstrates how a national deposit fund can transform dormant savings into a powerful engine for structural development. This is achieved through three key mechanisms:
- The centralization of regulated resources (such as Livret A savings accounts, notarial funds, and inactive accounts) within a secure public institution.
- The strategic conversion of short-term deposits into long-term loans, backed by a robust state guarantee.
- A significant leveraging effect, where every euro of centralized savings directly finances essential infrastructure projects, including social housing, urban renewal, fiber optic networks, and transport systems.
The Cameroonian CDEC is designed to replicate this successful architecture. Its core mission involves collecting, safeguarding, and ensuring the long-term profitability of resources that typically remain idle, directing them towards supporting vital public policies.
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CDEC’s progress: measurable growth
Available data confirms that the CDEC is already gaining significant momentum:
Legal framework and mobilizable resource categories
The 2008 law and its 2011 implementing decree define the CDEC’s resources across four primary categories: deposits (including notaries’ funds and inactive bank accounts), administrative consignments (such as public contract guarantees), judicial consignments (like bail and court settlements), and a fourth category of assimilated funds.
Coercive collection mechanism
A Prime Minister’s decree issued on December 1, 2023, mandated banks, insurance companies, notaries, and court registries to transfer their consigned funds within a specified timeframe. Non-compliance with this directive carries severe penalties, including external audits and late payment interest calculated at the BEAC marginal lending facility rate plus two points. This stringent legal framework is designed to ensure the rapid and secure scaling up of CDEC’s resources.
Results after three years
Director General Richard Evina Obam has reported the centralization of over 151 billion FCFA (approximately 260 million USD) three years after the CDEC became operational. While this is a substantial sum, it still represents only a fraction of the identified potential, with earlier estimates suggesting more than 1,000 billion FCFA lying dormant within the banking system.
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The transformation vehicle: the banking subsidiary
The most pivotal element for realizing the CDEC’s infrastructure ambitions is the proposed dedicated banking subsidiary, for which a feasibility study commenced in February 2025. This subsidiary is specifically designed to:
- Assist the State, decentralized territorial communities (CTD), and enterprises in raising capital for infrastructure financing.
- Provide support to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) seeking to participate in public procurement.
- Facilitate initial public offerings (IPOs) and the evaluation of business opportunities.
- Offer long-term financial products, including loans, guarantees, and leasing, tailored to Cameroonian stakeholders.
It is this function that structurally aligns the CDEC with the Banque des Territoires model of the French CDC, marking a strategic shift from merely being a custodian of regulated funds to becoming a patient, long-term investor in the real economy.
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Potential application areas in Cameroon
- Example: Housing
In France: HLM loans from savings funds
In Cameroon: Financing social housing, the 10,000 housing unit program - Example: Urban infrastructure
France: ANRU, Grand Paris Express
In Cameroon: Urban road networks, sanitation projects in Yaoundé and Douala - Example: Digital sector
France: Rural fiber optic deployment
In Cameroon: Expanding high-speed internet coverage beyond major metropolitan areas - Example: Local authorities
France: Loans to municipalities
In Cameroon: Financing decentralized territorial communities (CTDs), supporting decentralization efforts - Example: Transport
France: Highway concessions
In Cameroon: Development of road corridors, the Port of Kribi, and the railway hub
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Conditions for success and points of vigilance
However, a comparative analysis highlights several indispensable prerequisites, without which the CDEC risks remaining an underutilized instrument:
- Effectiveness of collection: The persistent resistance from certain banks to transfer due funds (with only one institution, Allianz Cameroun, having made an effective transfer by the end of 2023) indicates that resource mobilization remains an ongoing challenge.
- Governance and transparency: The institution’s credibility among savers and consignees is paramount, directly influencing the volume of voluntary deposits it can attract.
- Technical expertise in project financial engineering: Unlike a simple depositary, financing complex infrastructure projects demands specialized expertise in project debt structuring, risk assessment, and the development of robust guarantees.
- Coordination with other funders: Effective collaboration with other financial partners (such as an implicit Cameroonian Bpifrance, multilateral donors, and the Public Treasury) is crucial to avoid duplication and maximize the leveraging effect of investments.
In summary:
The CDEC now possesses the legal, institutional, and operational foundations to evolve into a genuine tool for infrastructure development, mirroring the successful model of the French Caisse des Dépôts. Its capacity to transform dormant regulated savings, currently estimated at several hundred billion FCFA, into long-term financing for infrastructure represents a credible, endogenous solution to the scarcity of external funding. The announced creation of a banking subsidiary specifically dedicated to infrastructure financing marks a decisive shift from a mere collection logic to one of structured investment. The ultimate success of this transformation will depend on the effective coercive collection of outstanding funds and the rapid development of internal expertise in project financial engineering.