Cameroon has secured a loan of 108.4 billion CFA francs, roughly $181 million, from EXIMBANK-China to fund the fourth phase of its national fibre-optic backbone expansion, with President Paul Biya signing the enabling decree on 6 March 2026. The deal authorises the Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development to execute the agreement, the latest in a series of Chinese-financed digital infrastructure investments across Central Africa.
- The loan is denominated at 1.35 billion RMB, equivalent to approximately 108.4 billion CFA francs. The Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development has been granted full authority to sign and implement the agreement with EXIMBANK-China.
- This is Phase 4 of Cameroon’s fibre-optic backbone project, indicating a multi-stage national rollout already underway. The funding is directed at expanding broadband connectivity across public, private, and government services nationwide.
- The decree mandates urgent registration and publication in Cameroon’s official journal in both French and English, signalling the government’s intent to move quickly to implementation.
China’s EXIMBANK has been one of the most active financiers of telecoms infrastructure across Africa over the past decade, providing concessional loans for undersea cables, national backbone networks, and data centres from West to East Africa. Cameroon’s Phase 4 loan follows the same model: a state-authorised agreement, RMB-denominated, repaid over time against a nationally strategic asset. The practical impact will depend on execution speed and the quality of the network buildout, both of which have varied across previous EXIMBANK-financed African telecoms projects.
The Bigger Picture: Cameroon’s fibre penetration remains among the lower tier in Central Africa, and each backbone phase is designed to push connectivity deeper into secondary cities and rural areas that Chinese-built trunk networks typically serve at the wholesale level. At $181 million, Phase 4 is a meaningful but not transformative investment for a country of 28 million people. The more important number will be the kilometre count of new fibre deployed and whether the buildout unlocks last-mile private investment, which is where digital economies are actually won or lost.
Source: TechAfrica News
