2024 SBEC Annual Report

Written by: Laurent Brice Nsengue, Meh Desmond Kum, Daisy Chefor Ngwenyi Meugue and Dr. Vera Kum

Published: October 29, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64116/Report.2024.SME

Reference: Nkafu Policy Institute, SBEC Annual Report, 2024, 46 pages

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report examines the critical role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in driving sustainable economic growth in Cameroon. It provides actionable strategies to enhance their resilience, dynamism, performance, and competitiveness. SMEs represent over 90% of businesses in Cameroon and contribute significantly to employment generation and GDP, yet they face substantial challenges limiting their growth potential. Key findings indicate that Cameroonian SMEs struggle with limited access to financing, complex regulatory environments, inadequate infrastructure, insufficient managerial capacity, and high levels of informality. These constraints restrict productivity, market access, and competitiveness on both domestic and international stages. The report recommends two primary strategies to address these challenges. These are to improve access to financing and create a sustainable tax system as well as to develop innovative financial products, establishing guarantee funds, implementing graduated tax structures, and simplifying tax procedures to reduce compliance burdens. It is undeniable that strengthening the creation and formalization of SMEs by streamlining business registration processes, creating one-stop shops for business services, deploying digital platforms for business formalization, and providing incentives for the transition from informal to formal status are convincing solutions to the difficulties of developing entrepreneurship in the country, but it has to be said that there are several recommendations along these lines. Implementing these strategies, adapted from successful models in countries such as Rwanda, Kenya and Morocco, would considerably improve the resilience and performance of Cameroon’s SMEs, particularly in the agricultural sector, which forms the backbone of the economy. Keywords: SMEs, Cameroon, economic growth, competitiveness, financing, formalization, entrepreneurship, business resilience