His Excellency Mr Paul Biya, the President of the Republic of Cameroon, approved on June 20, 2024 an ordinance that amends the Finance Law of the State of Cameroon for the 2024 budget year. The parliamentarians meeting in ordinary session this June 2024 will have to validate the presidential text, which increases the general budget of the State of 533 billion FCFA (+8%), from 6 679.5 billion FCFA to 7 212.5 billion FCFA.
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In order to finance this increase in the budget, the Cameroonian State plans to accelerate its debt ratio. Indeed, the government suggests in the amending finance law to increase its amount of «loans and other financing» by FCFA 488 billion. This represents 91.5% of the overall budget increase proposed by the government. Concretely, the amount of borrowing and other financing should increase from 1,489.4 billion to 1,977.4 billion CFA francs as part of the budgetary collective.
It will be necessary to contract this debt mainly from international donors and bilateral partners, that is, by using external financing. Indeed, while the ordinance of the President of the Republic recommends a reduction of CFAF 95 billion on public securities usually issued on the national market, The government plans to increase program borrowing by CFAF 240 billion from multilateral donors, from CFAF 125.9 billion initially to CFAF 365.9 billion, in accordance with the presidential text submitted for parliamentary approval.
A slight increase in internal revenues
In the same way, although it did not initially plan to make "other initial borrowings from external private organizations" in 2024, the State of Cameroon now plans to request 467 billion FCFA from these financial partners. At the same time, according to the presidential document, “multilateral project loans”, “project loans to governments affiliated with the Paris Club”, “project loans to governments not affiliated with the Paris Club”, and «project loans from external private bodies» will be reduced by CFAF 48.8 billion, CFAF 1.4 billion, CFAF 42.9 billion and CFAF 30.7 billion respectively.
In addition to the planned loans, the government is also planning a slight increase in national revenues in order to take advantage of the additional CFAF 533 billion provided for in the 2024 collective budget. Specifically, an increase of CFAF 45 billion in overall revenues is projected, from CFAF 5.190.1 billion to CFAF 5.235.1 billion. Tax revenues are expected to increase by CFAF 35 billion compared to the original budget, which explains this increase. Concretely, these revenues should finally amount to 4 203 billion FCFA, compared to 4 168.1 billion FCFA previously.
In order to accomplish this, the Cameroonian government attaches great importance to the stimulation of foreign trade, by providing an increase of FCFA 14 billion in «taxes on foreign trade and international transactions» compared to the initial envelope of FCFA 515.3 billion, as well as an increase of FCFA 13.7 billion in “other tax revenues”. For their part, “domestic taxes on goods and services” are expected to increase by FCFA 2.6 billion, compared to FCFA 2.204.4 billion initially forecast.
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