Cameroon: AFG Bank of Ivorian Bernard Koné Dossongui Takes Over Up to CFA 50 Billion in State Receivables in 2025

As of the end of September 2025, the latest economic outlook report on Cameroon’s public debt highlights the rising role of AFG Bank in managing the State’s domestic liabilities. Through several receivables assignment operations, the bank founded by Ivorian billionaire Bernard Koné Dossongui has established itself as one of the main financial intermediaries mobilized to clear payment arrears owed by the central administration to strategic companies.

Against a backdrop of mounting pressure on public cash flow, the Cameroonian State made renewed use in 2025 of the now well-established mechanism of receivables assignment. For a bank, this operation consists of purchasing unpaid invoices from State suppliers, thereby converting floating commercial debt into structured bank debt recorded within the stock of domestic public debt.

The Autonomous Sinking Fund (CAA) classifies these transactions under structured bank debt, whose outstanding amount increased sharply over the year. By the end of September 2025, the domestic debt of the central administration (excluding arrears payable and floating debt) stood at CFA 4,246 billion, up 15.5% year-on-year, reflecting a stronger mobilization of domestic financial resources.

CFA 50 Billion in Receivables Taken Over by AFG Bank

AFG Bank appears explicitly in the detailed tables of structured bank debt as the counterparty to several receivables assignment agreements signed in 2025. An analysis of the data on outstanding domestic debt excluding arrears payable highlights three major transactions attributable to the bank, totaling CFA 50 billion.

This portfolio includes a CFA 30 billion envelope corresponding to the assignment of receivables held by independent power producer Globeleq, through its subsidiaries DPDC and KPDC. Added to this are CFA 10 billion linked to the takeover of receivables from the Port Authority of Douala (PAD), as well as an identical CFA 10 billion tranche covering commitments of the public telecommunications operator Camtel. These amounts, recorded both in the outstanding structured debt and in actual disbursements, confirm the effective mobilization of funds for the benefit of the entities concerned.

On its own, the bank accounts for almost all of the large new receivables assignments recorded over the period. By comparison, Société Générale Cameroun, Banque Atlantique Cameroun, CCA Bank and UBA appear with smaller amounts: they mainly intervene in outstanding balances inherited from earlier operations or in unit amounts generally below CFA 10 billion per agreement. The concentration of new transactions around AFG Bank therefore reflects a more aggressive positioning in refinancing State arrears, while other institutions prioritize the management of existing portfolios.

From a budgetary standpoint, these operations accompany a reshaping of domestic debt. By substituting often old and opaque supplier debt with bank debt featuring a defined repayment schedule, the State improves the visibility of its liabilities and eases the cash constraints of strategic partners, particularly in energy, telecommunications and port logistics. However, this trade-off alters the structure of indebtedness: structured debt now represents 26.2% of total domestic debt outstanding, compared with a marginal share a few years ago, confirming a shift toward more formalized instruments.

A Banking Position with High Sovereign Exposure

For AFG Bank, this trend reinforces its exposure to the Cameroonian sovereign signature. By absorbing these receivables, the bank positions itself at the heart of the State’s financing circuit, within a risk framework governed by formalized agreements and budgetary commitments. For the authorities, the benefit is twofold: avoiding the financial strangulation of essential suppliers and smoothing, over time, the repayment of arrears that weigh on budget execution.

Beyond the amounts involved, AFG Bank’s recurring presence in receivables assignments in 2025 sends a clear signal about the evolution of domestic debt management in Cameroon. It illustrates the growing reliance on banking solutions to absorb the State’s cash-flow rigidities, in a context of strengthened budget discipline and closer monitoring of debt indicators. As of the end of September 2025, Cameroon’s public debt stood at CFA 14,591 billion, equivalent to 43.9% of GDP—a level still considered sustainable, but one that masks an internal recomposition of liabilities in favor of domestic bank debt.