Finance Week 2026: CNPS boss urges gov’t to channel savings to private investment.

Discussions were focused on mobilising investment and developing capital markets in the CEMAC zone.

He warned that administrative uncertainty and changing regulations are slowing private sector growth. Central to Mekulu Mvondo's address was the question of administrative uncertainty, which he described as one of the principal barriers to expanding the CNPS's support for the private sector. 

The CNPS Director General called for a stable and predictable regulatory framework, warning that frequent changes to legislation, driven by the State's recurring need for revenue were creating an environment in which investors could not plan with confidence.

“For the CNPS to be able to scale up its actions in support of the private sector, we must reduce what I call the administrative deadlock. Those we work with should have no hesitation about the fate of their investment, particularly in terms of profitability,” Mekulu Mvondo said.

The DG noted that when the State absorbs all available resources and finds them insufficient, it revises the law, a practice he said created total uncertainty for investors and ought not to be permitted.

“If an investor submits a business plan that the State has approved, whether for a five, ten or fifteen-year return on investment, the State must preserve that investor's status for the duration agreed. That predictability must guide our work together,” Mekulu Mvondo added.

He further argued that Cameroon needs to move beyond the current dynamic in which the State positions itself as the primary or near-exclusive recipient of national savings. 

Public debt, he observed, is growing at a faster rate than net economic output, a trajectory he described as a fundamental problem requiring urgent attention.

In his view, the more pressing question is not how to channel more funds to the State, but how to redefine the respective roles of public and private actors in the economy. 

A clearer, more balanced division of responsibilities, he argued, would allow regulation to be designed in a way that directs savings appropriately to each sector, rather than concentrating them within government coffers.

Mekulu Mvondo also pointed to the legal and operational framework governing investment as an area requiring improvement. 

According to him, the existing conditions fall short of what is needed to connect those holding savings with those requiring capital, whether State bodies or private producers.

Finance Week by EcoMatin is an annual forum that usually groups institutional, public and private stakeholders to discuss financing, investment and economic development in Cameroon and the broader Central African region.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3782 of Thursday May 07, 2026