2026 State budget: When IMF makes gov't violate the law!.

To give Parliamentarians sufficient time to read and understand the bill, Article 57 of the Law of July 11, 2018, stipulates that the "draft budget law must be submitted to Parliament, 15 days before the start of the session".

Even before the budget is voted, the Prime Minister must present a review of government action for the closing year and outline the State’s economic, social, and cultural programme for 2026; which was done just last Wednesday, November 28, at night. 

However, the CPDM government has been respecting the provision only in the breach, and for this year, it was no exception.  

It was "rubber stamped" as sent by the Executive realm at 8,816.4 billion CFA francs, 14% up from 2025, driven by higher personnel costs, goods and services, transfers and debt payments. 

Economic growth is expected to improve, reaching 4.3% in 2026, up from an estimated 3.9% in 2025.

“This growth would be driven primarily by the strong performance in the non-oil sector, while the oil sector is expected to contract slightly by 0.1% in 2026,” a government statement said, adding that inflation would ease by 0.2% from the current 3.2%.

Where will the money come from?  To cover its financing gap and other obligations, the government plans to rely on 826.7 billion CFA francs in project loans, 589.7 billion CFA francs in bank financing and 400 billion CFA francs from issuing government securities, along with budget support and exceptional financing borrowing and 1,000 billion CFA francs in external borrowing.

It is that external borrowing, especially from the International monetary Fund, IMF, that has been pushing Yaounde, known for preaching "respect of the law and State institutions", that has been pushing the government into fragrant violation of its own law.

In one of the budgetary sessions, Finance Minister, Louis Paul Motaze, was questioned by opposition Parliamentarians on the delay.

His answer: "The government has no intention of hiding anything. If there are delays in submitting a draft budget law, it is not because the government wants to put pressure on you”.

Using the 2022 budget as a case study, he had explained the role of development partners in the late submission of the Finance Bill to Parliament.

“We have a sub-programme with the International Monetary Fund. Before we come before you, we hold what we call budget framing discussions with the International Monetary Fund. This is to ensure that the draft budget we are preparing falls within the framework of our discussions with this development partner. It can happen that these discussions drag on, and that is what happened this year,” he had said on December 5, 2022.

Motaze had added that the funding for the 2022 budget was already secured, but at the last minute, some partners-imposed restrictions. 

He then reported to the elected officials: “Are you aware that it was in November that some development partners, from whom we were expecting a certain amount of funding, came to meet with us? They came to tell us that the funding we were expecting could not be released in full. As a result, we had to restart a number of discussions”. 

For next year, according to the government, Cameroon is expected to begin repaying 573 billion FCFA owed to the IMF. When on December 18 this year, Parliament asked the finance minister about payment of domestic debt, he emphasised that the Executive branch's priority remains the State's external debt.

He justified the prioritisation by explaining that "the repayments we owe on the external debt, we must make. If you don't pay the external debt, you are blacklisted; you are considered a country that is not serious. Therefore, no one will lend you money, or if they do, it will be under extremely restrictive conditions".

As regards internal debts, he said: "2026 is going to be an extremely difficult year...it is from 2026 onwards that we will begin to repay the support we received from our development partners; under the programme with the International Monetary Fund. So, we said to ourselves, with external debt, we're not taking any chances". 

The IMF dictation is said to ensure regional monetary solidarity within CEMAC; given that as the economic engine of the Subregion, a halt in IMF support would therefore threaten fiscal stability in Cameroon and across the Subregion.

That should explain why Cameroon has to dance to the music played by the IMF from Washington to get its national budget sent to Parliament.

The million-dollar question is, why does the IMF, which claims to be the professors of economic management teaching indebted countries how to run their economies, not ensure that their programmes with Cameroon are concluded in time for parliamentarians to get the budget draft two weeks before start of session as stipulated by Cameroon law? 

How does the IMF, often insisting on good governance and open budget, expect parliamentarians to have their oversight role of monitoring and reviewing activities to ensure accountability, transparency, and compliance with laws, policies, and objectives of the budget draft; when it is submitted too late in violation of the law.

Most a borrowing country violate its law just to swallow the conditions of the IMF, hook, line and sinker?

AS Thomas Jefferson said: "To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt".

But are CPDM Parliamentarians, with their obese majority in a position to “control government action” and force the Executive to exert sovereignty? The question answers itself.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3642 of Monday December 01, 2025