Cameroon’s public savings fund and a pan-African guarantee institution are preparing a joint response to one of the country’s most persistent economic bottlenecks: access to financing for small and medium-size businesses.
The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDEC) and the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) are set to sign an agreement on April 21, 2026, in Nairobi to establish a financing mechanism aimed at SMEs in Cameroon. The signing will take place in the presence of CDEC CEO Richard Evina Obam and AGF CEO Constant N’ZI.
For CDEC, the stakes are clear. SMEs account for more than 80% of the country’s economic fabric but continue to face the same constraints: heavy collateral requirements, limited access to credit, restrictive lending terms, and a high perception of risk among financial institutions. The new mechanism is designed to address these barriers by combining long-term funding with a guarantee system intended to reduce exposure for lenders.
The initiative starts with a pilot envelope of CFA5 billion, described by CDEC as a foundational step toward building a broader financing tool for local businesses. The goal is to support productive investment, strengthen company growth, and foster a more resilient private sector.
The program will focus primarily on structured SMEs or those in early growth stages, with particular attention to projects that can deliver strong economic impact, especially in local processing and digital sectors. It is not intended to finance early-stage ideas, but rather businesses that have reached a certain level of maturity and show clear growth potential.
Project sponsors are also emphasizing governance. The mechanism is expected to rely on active oversight by CDEC, strict selection criteria, phased disbursements, and a monitoring and evaluation framework designed to ensure performance and sustainability.
The rollout timeline is already defined. Following the April 21 signing, legal and financial structuring is expected to be completed by the end of June 2026, including the signing of tripartite agreements with financial partners. The first loans are scheduled for July 2026, with a progress review planned for October 31.
AGF, the technical partner in the project, is a pan-African financial institution established in 2011 that specializes in credit guarantees for SMEs. According to official data, it has helped mobilize more than $6.5 billion in financing for over 40,000 SMEs across Africa.
Through this partnership, CDEC is positioning itself more clearly as a development finance player, focusing on the perceived risk among lenders, one of the main obstacles to SME growth. The next test will be whether the mechanism can move quickly from design to actual credit disbursement.
Baudouin Enama