Cameroon’s trade partners

A persistent trade deficit

According to the national accounts of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Cameroon exported FCFA 5,065 billion worth of goods and services in 2024. That same year, it imported FCFA 6,053 billion. The country buys more than it sells to the rest of the world, a pattern already present in 2022 and 2023.

A customs union with five neighbours

Cameroon belongs to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), alongside Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Chad. The union applies a common external tariff to goods entering from a non-member country. It also organises free movement of goods among its six members.

Customs: enforcing the tariff

The Directorate General of Customs (DGD) applies this common external tariff at Cameroon's borders. It collects the corresponding duties and publishes the procedures every importer or exporter must follow.

A transit route for Chadian oil

Cameroon also serves as an export corridor for a neighbouring country. The pipeline linking the Doba oil fields in Chad to a floating export terminal off Kribi runs about 1,070 kilometres across Cameroonian territory. Running continuously since 2003, it remains Chad's only crude-export route, with its Cameroonian segment operated by the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO).

Where to check a precise figure

The export and import totals cited here are annual figures. Camerpedia's statistics hub publishes each indicator's full series, with its source and method, for anyone who wants to follow its change from one year to the next.