Cameroon leader urges 'urgent action' on central African economy

By AFP

Cameroonian President Paul Biya on Monday urged central African states to take "urgent action" to face the region's "concerning" economic climate, in his first public appearance since late October.

The 91-year-old strongman, who has been in power for 42 years and is the world's oldest head of state, returned to Cameroon on October 21 after weeks of absence that fuelled rife speculation about his health.

"Our net external assets have declined significantly. This situation is concerning and calls for urgent action on our part to turn the tide," Biya said at a special session of the Economic Community of Central African States in Cameroon's capital Yaounde.

"If nothing is done... we could face disastrous consequences both for our countries and for our sub-region," the leader said, calling on members like the Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad to take "concrete steps".

The ECCAS, which is part of the African Union and made up of 11 countries, aims at fostering economic cooperation in Central Africa.

While reports of a possible devaluation of the regional CFA franc currency have recently emerged in the press, "no monetary adjustment is on the agenda" at the "extraordinary summit", according to a statement issued by the Cameroonian presidency late on Sunday.

'Slow and stagnant'

The presidents of CAR, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea attended the event, which also hosted IMF and African Development Bank representatives, while Chad sent its finance minister, Tahir Hamid Nguilin and the Republic of the Congo its prime minister, Anatole Collinet Makosso.

CAR President Faustin Archange Touadera, who presides over the ECCAS, said the bloc had resisted internal and external shocks over the past decade.

ECCAS "has been resilient to the large fluctuations in raw material prices, unprecedented security and health crises, the devastating effects of climate change and funding shortages," he said.

Uniform monetary policy has allowed consolidation of economic growth which came in at 2.7 percent in 2024 compared to minus 1.1 percent in 2016, thanks to the implementation of more than 60 percent of agreed reforms, he added.

But a joint analysis published by the IMF and the World Bank in April 2024 painted a different picture.

"Despite the years of buoyant oil revenue and increased public spending, real incomes in CEMAC stagnated over the past three decades," the organisations said in the report.

They added that CEMAC "remains a largely undiversified economy over-dependent on oil, and with still untapped internal regional market".

Income inequality has remained high compared to other countries and did not improve over the last decade, with the IMF and the World Bank deploring the "slow and stagnant" implementation of reforms.

With national debt peaking at 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), Gabon has seen growth slowing to 2.4 percent in 2023 down from 3.1 percent in 2022, due to disruptions in the transport section that affected its wood and manganese industries.

Meanwhile in the Republic of Congo, poverty has soared by nearly 47 percent and inflation hit 4.3 percent in 2023, while its debt hiked up to 96 percent of the GDP.

Members of the pact will need to "pay particular attention to economic and budgetary balances" in their public finances, Touadera said.

They should also support their central bank with a "monetary policy guaranteeing a strong external position and the lasting decline of inflation towards the regional convergence criterion".