• President authorizes new buyer credit to expand national video surveillance
• Loan complements earlier financing from CITIC Bank and Bank of China
• Project targets urban security, traffic control, and security operations

By a decree signed on December 17, Cameroonian President Paul Biya authorized the Minister of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development to conclude a financing agreement with China CITIC Bank Corporation Ltd, through its Shenzhen branch.

The agreement covers a buyer credit loan of €59.82 million ($70.13 million), intended as additional financing for the nationwide expansion of the intelligent urban video surveillance system. The government program aims to strengthen security in the country’s main urban centers.

According to the authorities, the new funding is intended to consolidate and expand technological systems already deployed in several major cities. The objective is to improve crime prevention and enforcement, road traffic management, and the response capacity of security forces through advanced digital tools.

The new loan follows earlier financing mobilized for the same project. In December 2024, Cameroon had already received authorization to contract a €50 million loan from the same bank for partial financing of the program. Before that, funding of CFA46 billion ($82.2 million) provided by Bank of China supported the project’s first phase.

That initial phase led to the installation of 1,500 surveillance cameras in several cities, along with the acquisition of 2,000 portable transmitter-receiver units for security forces. The targeted locations include the capitals of Cameroon’s ten regions, as well as strategic towns such as Kribi, home to the country’s main deep-water port, and Kyé-Ossi and Garoua-Boulaï, located near the borders with Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Central African Republic.

The project has also focused on sensitive areas in the Far North region, which has faced attacks by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram since 2013.

SG