Senate : Finance Bill Tabled

In the days ahead, Senators will examine in detail the Finance Bill of Cameroon for the 2026 financial year. The document that was tabled during a plenary sitting of yesterday, chaired by the Senior Vice President of the Senate, Aboubakary Abdoulaye, provides for and authorises State resources, fixes ceilings for expenses and establishes the resulting budgetary and financial balance. The legal instrument was deemed admissible at the Chairman’s Conference that held before the plenary sitting and was equally chaired by the Senior Vice President. 
The finance bill contains projections of the State budget for 2026 which is balanced in income and expenditure to the sum of FCAF 8,816.4 billion, compared with FCFA 7,735.9 billion in 2025, reflecting an increase of FCFA 1,080.5 billion CFA francs (14 per cent). The budget is broken down into two main parts; general budget (FCFA 8,683.9 billion) and special appropriation accounts (FCFA 135.5 billion). The aforementioned amount will be generated through taxes, duties, levies, contributions, royalties, other proceeds and public revenue. The generated amount will be used for improving the wellbeing of Cameroonians through the implementation of various projects and programmes. 
On measures relating to youth employment promotion, firms subject to the actual earnings tax system which recruit Cameroonian graduates below 35 years for first-time jobs or pre-employed internship on open-term contract basis shall be exempted from taxes and contributions on salary paid to such young people, excluding social security contributions. Incentives for the rehabilitation of disaster areas are also provided for in the finance law. With the exception of simple trading activities, companies that carryout new investments in an economic disaster area shall be exempted from some taxes and duties during the installation phase which may not exceed three years. Amongst...