Cameroon Launches the AgriConnect Compact to Transform Its Agropastoral and Fisheries Sectors

Yaoundé, October 21, 2026. The Government of Cameroon, in partnership with the World Bank Group, today announced the launch of the Cameroon AgriConnect Compact. This strategic initiative aims to transform the country’s food sector, create jobs at scale and improve food security for millions of Cameroonians.

Cameroon’s food sector contributes about 17 percent of GDP and employs some 4.7 people, or 42 percent of the workforce, most of them on smallholder farms. Agriculture also accounts for more than half of the country’s non-oil export earnings.

The AgriConnect Compact focuses on eight priority value chains: maize, rice, cassava, oil palm, cocoa, soybeans, dairy, and fisheries and aquaculture. By investing in agricultural infrastructure and services, strengthening sector policies, and expanding access to finance, the Compact aims to attract more private investment, boost productivity, create jobs, and reduce dependence on food imports.

Aligned with Cameroon’s National Development Strategy (NDS30), Rural Sector Development Strategy (RSDS/NAIP 2020–2030), and Integrated Agricultural and Fisheries Import Substitution Program (PIISAH), the AgriConnect Compact provides a coordinated framework for implementation, bringing together the Government of Cameroon and the World Bank Group, as well as technical and financial partners, the private sector, and producer organizations.

“The AgriConnect Compact is fully aligned with our long-term development vision set out in NDS30. It provides a platform for strategic coherence, enabling national and international resources to be mobilized and aligned around clearly defined priorities. By anchoring this initiative in our national planning framework, we are equipping ourselves to achieve a sustainable structural transformation of our economy for the benefit of all Cameroonians.” — Mr. Alamine Ousmane Mey, Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development.

The Compact is overseen by a Steering Committee co-chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, with the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development ensuring alignment with national priorities, alongside representatives of the private sector and development partners. Technical Working Groups coordinate implementation across three pillars: strengthening agricultural foundations, reforming sector policies, and developing the financial ecosystem.

“What drives us in AgriConnect is the conviction that Cameroonian agriculture can feed Cameroon, create opportunities for its youth, and become an engine of shared prosperity. Through coordinated action we aim to catalyze momentum in which public and private investment converge toward a single objective: making food security and job creation a tangible and lasting reality for every Cameroonian.” — Mr. Cheick F. Kante, World Bank Division Director for Cameroon.

The Compact was developed in consultation with technical and financial partners — the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Union (EU), the French Development Agency (AFD), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) — together with producer organizations and the private sector.

Beyond its financial partners, implementation will draw on the full range of technical partners — United Nations agencies, funds and programs, national and international research centers, universities and technical and vocational education institutions, and non-governmental and professional organizations — whose expertise in research, standards, statistics, extension and capacity building will be mobilized through the operations plans.