Money laundering: Bad news for Cameroon from EU!.

Seven other countries of the 54 on the continent, that are in the black list are Algeria, Angola, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Namibia, and South Sudan.

What the designation means is to protect the integrity of EU's financial system by identifying jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in combating money laundering, terrorism financing, and the financing of business that scare investors.

For Cameroonian exporters, bank processing times will increase. It's inevitable. The bad news is that it will affect large companies as much as Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, SMEs working with the EU with whom Cameroon maintains a trade surplus, with imports nearly 46% of the country's exports goods, mainly agricultural products.

For example, a company receiving investment from France will have to provide more supporting documents than before. 

Processing time, already lengthy for some applications, are likely to increase even further.

For European businesses and financial institutions operating in or with Cameroon, the designation means transactions are subject to enhanced customer due diligence, rather than outright restrictions.

This can lead to additional documentation requirements, more rigorous compliance checks, and longer processing times for cross-border financial transactions, which might attract costs.

The European Commission's assessments are informed by technical evaluations and closely aligned with the standards developed by the Financial Action Task Force, the global watchdog for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.

Cameroon and seven other African countries on the inglorious list can only be removed after implementing reforms that sufficiently address the identified deficiencies.

The European index is not the only measuring international instrument that has been used to assess governance in Cameroon, which is key to attracting foreign investments in a very competitive world.

According to the World Bank’s Business Ready report, published last year, Cameroon’s business environment currently sits at crossroads with a complex landscape in which legal requirements often outpace practical support.

The Business Ready lndex, which has replaced the traditional Doing Business rankings, evaluated 101 economies across three critical pillars: the quality of their regulatory frameworks, the availability of public services, and the operational efficiency experienced by firms on the ground.

Cameroon earned a score of 58.75, reflecting a relatively stable foundation of laws governing businesses, labour, and disputes resolution, but it is below the global average of 66.32.

It might look as a passable achievement, but the report pointed out negatively that it only “underscores a common trend in developing economies: It is far easier to reform laws on paper than it is to build the institutional systems required to implement them.”

It added that the “disconnect is most visible in the realm of public services, where Cameroon recorded its lowest score of 36.30. 

The significant lag behind the global average of 53.97 points. It indicates a ‘service gap’ in critical areas, including digital tax filing, licensing platforms, and efficient border infrastructure.”

As for the latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, Cameroon has only 26 out of 100 and ranked 142nd globally out of 182 assessed countries and territories.

It marked a period of persistent stagnation for the country, with the score remaining well below both the global average of 42 and the sub-Saharan Africa average of 32.

As has been observed by some economists, the European index “is a bad sign for everyone. It's hard not to see it as a further obstacle to the country's attractiveness to investors, at a time when Cameroon is precisely seeking to diversify its economic partnerships beyond traditional donors”.

The ranking raises the fundamental question, almost more serious than the immediate administrative hassles: Are Cameroon's financial oversight mechanisms truly up to international standards?

It is not yet known how long it will take for the country to be removed from the “bad boys” list, only eight in Africa, or how soon concrete reforms will actually be undertaken in Yaounde to get off the list.

But as The Guardian Post sees the indexes, they are metrics that are particularly telling as they measure the real-world experience of investors- be they foreign or national.

They should serve as wake-up calls for efficiency in the daily functioning of government agencies; to ensure laws governing corruption and money laundry, the crimes inadvertently facilitated by the non-declaration of assets, are not just on paper, but impartially enforced for the country to emerge in 2030.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3841 of Wednesday July 08, 2026