Cameroon’s CDEC: unlocking domestic savings for national infrastructure

Cameroon, like many African economies, has faced a tightening of access to traditional external financing sources for several years. Concessional multilateral loans, public development aid, and increasingly expensive international bond markets have become less accessible. In this challenging environment, the strategic imperative to mobilize domestic savings, both public and private, has become paramount. This is precisely the critical role now being fulfilled by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDEC), which became operational on January 20, 2023, following a presidential decree, fifteen years after its legal establishment by a 2008 law.

1. A proven model: lessons from France’s Caisse des Dépôts

The French experience with its Caisse des Dépôts demonstrates how dormant savings can be transformed into a powerful engine for structural development, primarily through three key mechanisms:

• The centralization of regulated funds (such as Livret A 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.
• The generation of a significant leverage effect, where every euro of centralized savings directly finances critical infrastructure projects, including social housing, urban regeneration, fiber optic networks, and transportation systems.

Cameroon’s CDEC is designed to mirror this successful architecture. Its core mandate is to collect, safeguard, and ensure the long-term profitability of resources that typically lie idle, directing them strategically to support vital public policies.

2. CDEC’s progress: measurable momentum

Available data confirms that CDEC is already gaining significant traction:

Legal framework and mobilizable resource categories

The foundational 2008 law and its 2011 implementing decree delineate CDEC’s resources into four distinct categories: deposits (including notary funds and inactive bank accounts), administrative consignments (such as public market sureties), judicial consignments (like bail and court settlements), and a fourth category of assimilated funds.

Coercive collection mechanism

A decree issued by the Prime Minister on December 1, 2023, mandated banks, insurance companies, notaries, and court registries to transfer their consigned funds within a specified timeframe. Non-compliance carries severe penalties, including external audits and late interest calculated at the BEAC marginal lending facility rate plus two points. This stringent legal framework is designed to ensure the effective and rapid accumulation of resources.

Results after three years

Director General Richard Evina Obam recently announced the centralization of over 151 billion FCFA (approximately 260 million USD) three years after CDEC’s operational launch. While this figure is substantial, it remains proportionally well below the identified potential, with earlier estimates suggesting more than 1,000 billion FCFA might be dormant within the banking system.

3. The transformation vehicle: a dedicated banking subsidiary

Perhaps the most pivotal element for CDEC’s ambitious infrastructure development goals is the planned creation of a specialized banking subsidiary, for which a feasibility study commenced in February 2025. This subsidiary is explicitly designed to:

• Support the State, decentralized territorial communities (CTD), and businesses in raising capital for infrastructure financing.
• Provide assistance to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) aiming to participate in public procurement contracts.
• Facilitate initial public offerings (IPOs) and the comprehensive evaluation of business opportunities.
• Offer long-term financial products, including loans, guarantees, and leasing solutions, specifically tailored to the needs of Cameroonian stakeholders.

This critical function structurally aligns CDEC with the ‘Banque des Territoires’ model of the French CDC, marking a strategic shift from being merely a custodian of regulated funds to becoming a patient, long-term investor in Cameroon’s real economy.

4. Potential application areas across Cameroon

CDEC’s operational model holds immense potential for various sectors in Cameroon, drawing parallels from successful French applications:

• Housing: Mirroring France’s social housing loans from savings funds, CDEC can finance social housing initiatives, including Cameroon’s ambitious 10,000 housing program.
• Urban infrastructure: Inspired by projects like France’s ANRU and Grand Paris Express, CDEC can support urban road development and sanitation improvements in cities such as Yaoundé and Douala.
• Digital connectivity: Following France’s rural fiber optic deployment, CDEC can facilitate the expansion of high-speed broadband coverage beyond Cameroon’s major metropolitan areas.
• Local authorities: Similar to French loans to municipalities, CDEC can provide crucial financing for CTDs, bolstering the nation’s decentralization efforts.
• Transport: Emulating France’s highway concessions, CDEC can invest in critical transport infrastructure, including road corridors, the Kribi port, and the development of a national railway hub.

5. Conditions for success and critical points of vigilance

A comparative analysis, however, underscores several indispensable prerequisites without which CDEC risks remaining an underutilized instrument:

• Effectiveness of collection: The persistent reluctance of some banks to transfer due funds (only Allianz Cameroun had completed a transfer by late 2023) highlights that the comprehensive mobilization of resources remains an ongoing challenge.
• Governance and transparency: The institution’s credibility among savers and consignees is directly proportional to the volume of voluntary deposits it can attract.
• Technical expertise in project financial engineering: Unlike a simple depositary, financing complex infrastructure demands specialized knowledge in project debt structuring, thorough risk assessment, and the skillful arrangement of guarantees.
• Coordination with other funders: Seamless collaboration with other financial partners (such as an implicit Cameroonian Bpifrance, multilateral donors, and the Public Treasury) is essential to prevent duplication of efforts and maximize the overall leverage effect.

In summation, CDEC possesses the fundamental legal, institutional, and now operational frameworks to evolve into a powerful tool for infrastructure development, akin to the Caisse des Dépôts in France. Its capacity to transform dormant regulated savings, currently estimated at several hundred billion FCFA, into long-term financing for vital infrastructure projects represents a credible, endogenous solution to the scarcity of external funding. The announced creation of a dedicated banking subsidiary for infrastructure financing marks a decisive transition from a mere collection-focused approach to one centered on structuring investments. The ultimate success of this transformative shift will hinge on the effective coercive collection of outstanding funds and the rapid development of robust internal competencies in project financial engineering.