State in Cameroon

Cameroon's constitutional order assigns executive authority mainly to the President, who is Head of State, guarantor of the Constitution, national unity and territorial integrity, and responsible for internal and external security. The President is elected by direct universal suffrage in a one-round election for a seven-year mandate, with re-election permitted. The President appoints the Prime Minister and government, promulgates laws, exercises regulatory power, creates and organizes State services, appoints civil and military officials, may dissolve the National Assembly, and may declare a state of emergency or state of exception. The Prime Minister is Head of Government and coordinates government action under the President. Parliament consists of the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly legislates, approves the budget and oversees government. The Senate has 100 seats, with ten seats for each of Cameroon's ten Regions; seven senators per Region are indirectly elected by a regional electoral college and three are appointed by the President. Senators serve five-year mandates and represent decentralized local authorities. The Supreme Court is the highest State jurisdiction and includes Judicial, Administrative and Audit Chambers. The Constitutional Council reviews constitutional questions and handles electoral disputes within its institutional role. The North-West and South-West Regions have special-status arrangements reflecting their linguistic heritage, including English-language education and Common Law features. State administration and decentralized local government are different. State administration is organized into 10 Regions, 58 Départements and 360 Arrondissements. A Governor represents the State at Region level, a Préfet at Département level and a Sous-préfet at Arrondissement level. The Ministry of Territorial Administration, MINAT, coordinates territorial administration, civil protection, public liberties, traditional chiefdoms and prefectural services. Ministries also maintain déconcentrated services at territorial level. MINFOPRA manages the civil service, including civil-servant status, training, discipline, administrative reform and public-service litigation. Decentralized local authorities are Regions and Communes. They are public-law legal persons with elected deliberative and executive bodies, their own budgets and administrative and financial autonomy. Local structures include the Conseil Municipal and Maire at Commune level, and the Conseil Régional and Président du Conseil Régional at Region level. Urban areas may also use Communautés Urbaines and Communes d'Arrondissement. Decentralization transfers State competences and resources to these authorities. Transferred competences are generally exclusive, while State intervention remains possible for balanced development, emergencies or a proven failure to perform the relevant function. The special-status regions have additional arrangements under the decentralization framework. Access to a public service depends on the service-specific law and the responsible institution. A request may go to the competent ministry, a regional, departmental or subdivisional service, or to a Commune or Region when the function has been devolved. Eligibility may depend on the applicant's status, residence, organization or the service requested. Public authorities operate within a bilingual framework, while users must comply with applicable laws, taxes and public-order rules. Fees, required documents, processing steps and response times vary by service; Cameroon has no single tariff or universal service deadline covering all State services. Current requirements should therefore be checked with the competent office or its official portal. MINFI manages financial, budgetary, fiscal and monetary policy. The State budget covers public revenue, taxation and customs, Treasury operations, public assets and expenditure, and is established through a finance law and reviewed through a settlement law. The official 2026 framework projected 4.3% growth, 3% inflation and a deficit of 1.7% of GDP, with a public-debt target of no more than 50% of GDP; the CEMAC convergence threshold is 70%. A medium-term budget framework covers at least three years, and a supplementary budget may revise the approved budget. Regions and Communes finance their duties through own revenue, State transfers, public or private funding and legally defined shares of natural-resource revenue. Their high reliance on State transfers affects practical local capacity. Several bodies oversee State activity. Parliament examines government action and public finances. The Audit Chamber of the Supreme Court audits and judges State, decentralized-local-authority, public and parapublic accounts, issues opinions on settlement bills, publishes annual reports, audits management faults and certifies the Compte Général de l'État. CONAC, an independent public body under the President, receives complaints and intelligence, investigates and prevents corruption, checks projects and procurement, and operates the 1517 hotline. ARMP regulates public procurement and public-service concessions, evaluates and sanctions actors, and observes procurement processes. The National Communication Council, or NCC, is a regulatory and consultative body under the Prime Minister with nine members appointed by the President; it addresses media law, ethics, public peace and national integration. The CNDHL deals with human rights and freedoms. Cameroon has no single ombudsman covering the entire State, although the Code for decentralized local authorities provides an independent conciliator for the special-status regional level. State communication is officially bilingual, and government and legal publications are issued in English and French. Information can be sought through ministry portals, prefectures, Communes, Regions, Parliament and oversight bodies. MINFI publishes budget and open-data material, while audit publications, CONAC complaint channels and ARMP procurement oversight provide additional transparency channels. Security functions remain institutionally distinct: the President is Commander-in-Chief; MINDEF administers the armed forces and related military services; the DGSN handles internal policing and national security; MINAT handles public-order administration and civil protection; and the Gendarmerie, Armed Forces, National Fire-Fighters Corps and military courts have different functions. The correct complaint or assistance channel depends on the incident and the responsible body.