• Visa hosts compliance forum to strengthen Cameroon's financial system
• Focus on AML, digital ID, and AI to boost trust, security
• Aims to align African compliance with global investor standards

Global digital payments giant Visa convened banks, fintech companies, and institutional partners in Douala on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, for its Visa Compliance Forum. The meeting’s goal was to create a space for dialogue around compliance standards to deepen their understanding and implementation within Cameroon’s financial ecosystem.

“We organized this forum to build a secure, compliant, and high-performing ecosystem. Compliance is a serious subject, and we want our business to evolve within a well-regulated framework to ensure innovation happens under the right conditions,” said Inès Amani, Visa’s Country Manager for Cameroon.

This gathering forms part of a continent-wide strategy that began in West Africa. Weeks earlier, Visa held a similar forum in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, for financial actors in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). There, the company emphasized compliance as key to attracting international investors to African markets, highlighting tools tailored to African realities to combat fraud and money laundering.

By replicating the model in Cameroon, Visa is expanding its focus to Central Africa, a region still characterized by low financial inclusion—less than 20% of the population is banked, according to the Central Bank of Central African States (BEAC)—and persistent challenges in identity verification and financial flow traceability.

Compliance as a Competitive Edge

Financial compliance requires institutions to adhere to established laws, regulations, and standards. This includes anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF), customer protection, and risk management. The overarching goal is to ensure the transparency, integrity, and stability of the financial system, which are essential prerequisites for attracting foreign capital.

While a regulatory framework exists in Cameroon, it faces structural limitations, particularly in reliably identifying clients. Visa is proposing to reinforce these mechanisms by providing innovative solutions. These include biometric identity to secure access to financial services, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for real-time monitoring of suspicious transactions, and documented reports and field visits to strengthen due diligence and verify client authenticity.

"Until the country resolves its identification issues, we are offering pragmatic alternatives that allow institutions to remain compliant," Amani noted.

International Reach and Opportunity

Operating in more than 200 countries, Visa reports having 4.7 billion payment credentials and 150 million connected merchants globally. The company claims it prevented $40 billion in fraud in 2024 and blocks over 203 billion suspicious transactions annually.

These figures underscore an objective beyond Cameroon: to standardize compliance across the African continent and align it with global practices. Visa seeks to build an African compliance network capable of meeting the demands of international funders and reducing the costs associated with fraud or money laundering risks.

This initiative arrives as Cameroon introduced the Tax Compliance Certificate (ACF) in 2024 as a requirement for obtaining certain administrative documents, including exit visas. This reform signals a governmental commitment to strengthening financial flow traceability and expanding the tax base. By aligning itself with these institutional efforts, Visa contributes technological expertise and an international framework that could position Cameroon as a financial compliance hub in Central Africa, mirroring Côte d'Ivoire's role in West Africa.

Baudouin Enama