2025 Finance Bill Senators : Scrutinise Legal Instrument

The Finance bill of the Republic of Cameroon for the 2025 financial year has been tabled before Senators for scrutiny. This was during a plenary of December 9, 2024 chaired by the First Vice President of the Senate, Aboubakary Abdoulaye. The plenary sitting followed a Chairmen Conference that deemed admissible the Finance Bill. 
The legal instrument contains the State budget for 2025, balanced in revenue and expenditure to the tune of FCFA 7,317.7 billion. It is prepared taking into consideration the political, economic, social and cultural programme of government that was presented by the Prime Minister before the Members of the National Assembly on December 1, 2024.  A read through the voluminous document makes one understand that the objective of the proposed bill is to increase inclusive growth and better implement the National Development Strategy 2030. The national and international context was taken into consideration during the preparation of the document. The growth rate of the Cameroon’s economy is expected to rise from 3.8 per cent in 2024 to 4.1 in 2025. Explanatory notes of the Finance Bill state that the positive outlook would be driven by the non-oil sector, with a projected growth rate of 4.3 per cent in 2025, up from 4.1 per cent in 2024 and 3.6 per cent in 2023. With regard to the structuring of the 2025 budget, domestic and donations are projected at FCFA 5,548.1 billion, an increase of FCFA 313.1 billion compared to 2024. 
Challenges intended to be addressed by the government with the proposed budget include; increasing power supply to industries and households, increase local supply of consumer products and inputs to agro-industries, boosting and preserving the purchasing power of underprivileged households, accelerating decentral...