Not long ago, France stood unchallenged as Cameroon’s biggest trade ally, a relationship steeped in history, politics, and post-colonial interdependence. However, 2025 has upended that order. China has become Cameroon’s second-largest export destination, overtaking France and signalling Africa’s shifting economic centre of gravity.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Cameroon’s exports to China surged by 8.7 percentage points in 2024, reaching 535.1 billion XAF, or 16.5% of total exports. France, once dominant, has slipped to fifth place, accounting for only 5.7%.
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At the top of Cameroon’s export chart is the Netherlands, with 19.2% of total exports, largely due to cocoa and crude oil. But the real headline is China’s meteoric rise, driven by oil and natural gas, which make up over 90% of Cameroonian exports to Beijing.
China’s growing appetite for African hydrocarbons comes as European importers, particularly France, tighten sustainability standards and phase out fossil imports. For Cameroon, an oil-producing nation seeking economic stability amid fluctuating global prices, Beijing offers a consistent and politically non-intrusive partner.
India maintains its third position (10.1%) with strong demand for liquefied natural gas and cotton, while Italy rises modestly to fourth. Chad, once Cameroon’s leading African partner within the CEMAC bloc, has slipped to eighth, underscoring a broader contraction in intra-African petroleum trade.
This reshuffling is more than commercial; it’s geopolitical. Cameroon’s growing trade with China reflects a wider continental shift as Africa reorients its economic partnerships towards Asia. Across the continent, traditional European partners are losing ground to emerging Asian powers whose engagement strategies emphasise mutual development over political conditionality.
China’s infrastructure-for-resources model has reshaped Africa’s economic landscape by funding ports, roads, and energy facilities without the restrictive terms often tied to Western aid. Meanwhile, steady demand from Asian markets for African raw materials provides a reliable outlet as Europe’s decarbonisation policies reduce fossil imports.
For Cameroon, the pivot eastward is both strategic and pragmatic. Diversifying export destinations shields the country from European trade constraints, while deepening integration with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, connecting African economies to Asian industrial networks and strengthening the continent’s leverage in global trade.
France’s diminishing trade influence in Cameroon reflects a broader continental trend unravelling the traditional dominance of the Francophone economic bloc. For decades, France controlled much of Cameroon’s external trade through post-colonial agreements, preferential access to key sectors, and the continued use of the CFA franc pegged to the euro. French corporations like TotalEnergies and Bolloré were once deeply entrenched in the country’s logistics, energy, and financial systems.
However, the past decade has marked a turning point. French investments have stagnated while Chinese-backed infrastructure projects have flourished. Rising local discontent towards neo-colonial practices, coupled with Paris’ declining diplomatic influence across Central and West Africa, has further eroded France’s economic foothold, a trend mirrored by growing anti-French sentiment in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad.
Although Cameroon has not joined the Alliance of Sahel States, its pivot towards new trade partners underscores a subtle yet significant economic recalibration, a quiet decolonisation taking place through evolving trade relationships rather than political rupture.
Cameroon’s partnership with China dates back to 1971 and has evolved from a symbolic friendship into a strategic alliance. Milestones such as Cameroon’s participation in the 2006 Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and Chinese President Hu Jintao’s 2007 visit underscored Beijing’s commitment to Central Africa and laid the groundwork for substantial economic cooperation.
Since then, China has channelled approximately $2.4 billion into various infrastructure projects, including the Kribi Deep Seaport, Cameroon’s largest maritime gateway, and the Memve’ele Hydroelectric Dam, which provides clean energy to the southern regions. Investments in health, such as a malaria research centre at Yaoundé’s Hospital of Gynaecology, Obstetrics, and Paediatrics, further illustrate this development-first diplomacy, emphasising tangible outcomes over Western-style conditionalities.
Economic Implications: Between Dependency and Diversification
Cameroon’s tilt towards China offers immediate advantages, stable export demand, infrastructure finance, and expanded market access. However, it also raises long-term questions about dependency and value addition.
Currently, over 80% of exports to China are raw materials (crude oil, gas, timber), while finished goods flow in the opposite direction, replicating a colonial trade pattern under a different flag. The challenge lies in transforming this structure from extraction to industrial cooperation.
Beijing’s growing interest in African manufacturing partnerships, particularly in special economic zones, presents an opportunity for Cameroon to localise production, create jobs, and climb the global value chain. The Kribi Industrial Zone, for instance, could evolve into a manufacturing hub connecting African and Asian supply chains if policies align with sustainable growth strategies.
Between 2000 and 2022, China–Africa trade ballooned from $10 billion to over $282 billion, surpassing the United States and the EU as Africa’s largest trading partner. For Africa, this is about more than numbers; it’s about agency. Nations from Angola to Kenya to Cameroon are asserting new leverage by diversifying partnerships. The AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) offers an additional framework for integrating African markets internally while negotiating better terms externally.
Cameroon’s trade shift embodies a new African pragmatism, a readiness to engage globally without being anchored to former colonial dependencies. Yet, the country must ensure that transparent contracts, environmental safeguards, and technology transfer accompany these partnerships.
As Europe pivots towards green energy, Cameroon’s economic planners face a dual task, leveraging short-term hydrocarbon demand from Asia while investing in renewables, agro-processing, and digital infrastructure for future competitiveness.
The transformation of Cameroon’s trade structure is not an endpoint but a crossroads, one that will determine whether Africa’s engagement with China becomes a bridge to self-reliance or a new form of dependency.
China’s rise as Cameroon’s second-largest export market marks more than a trade milestone, it encapsulates a continental awakening. Across Africa, nations are redefining sovereignty through diversified alliances and reimagined partnerships.
For Cameroon, this evolution is both pragmatic and symbolic, a reflection of Africa’s broader journey from dependency to partnership, from margins to markets, and from post-colonial uncertainty to global prominence.
The world’s trade winds are shifting east, and Cameroon is already sailing with them.
