Cameroon’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has launched the AgriConnect Compact, a coordination framework worth 971.2 billion CFA francs, about US$1.66 billion or roughly £1.24 billion, to accelerate investment across the country’s farming value chains. Agriculture Minister Gabriel Mbairobe unveiled the compact at a consolidation workshop held at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture’s research station in Yaounde.
The government will contribute 201.6 billion CFA francs directly, about US$344.8 million or roughly £257.7 million, with the remainder expected from blended finance, public-private partnerships and private investors. Officials describe the compact as a coordination tool rather than a new standalone programme, designed to align existing agricultural initiatives under a single strategic umbrella.
The framework rests on three pillars: strengthening the foundations of agrifood transformation, reforming the institutional and economic environment to attract private investment, and overhauling how agricultural financing reaches farmers and processors. Cameroon Tribune, the state-run newspaper that first reported the workshop, said the compact supports the president’s drive toward import substitution in food production.
Seed farms agreement signed alongside the compact
Alongside the launch, officials signed a separate agreement establishing two seed farms, intended to improve the supply of quality planting material to smallholders. Seed shortages have long been cited by Cameroonian farmers as a constraint on yields, particularly for staple cereals and vegetables grown for domestic markets.
The workshop drew officials from across government alongside researchers based at the IITA station, reflecting an attempt to anchor the compact in applied agricultural science rather than policy alone. The ministry has not yet published a detailed disbursement timeline, nor named which private investors have committed funds.
Part of a wider import-substitution push
The compact sits within a broader government strategy to reduce reliance on imported staples, from rice to poultry feed, that have strained the country’s trade balance. Similar coordination compacts have been used elsewhere on the continent, including in Angola, to bundle disparate agricultural investments under shared governance structures.
Independent confirmation of the AgriConnect Compact’s full financial structure remains limited to the government’s own announcement; international development partners have not yet issued statements on co-financing. Farmers’ groups contacted by local media have welcomed the ambition but want clarity on how smallholders, rather than large agribusinesses, will access the new financing.
