Amid widespread informality, low tax-to-GDP and continued reliance on external financing, a new OECD report analyses the structural challenges facing Cameroon’s social protection system and sets out options for gradually expanding social protection coverage and strengthening its financing.
The report, Financing Social Protection in Cameroon, highlights that only around one in ten people in Cameroon were covered by social protection in 2022, either through social assistance programmes or contributions to social security schemes, while households bore approximately 70% of total health expenditure – one of the highest levels worldwide. Public spending on health and social assistance remains well below regional averages and of those observed in countries with comparable income.
The report also highlights the importance of increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio, which stood below 15% of GDP in 2024 (including through social security contributions), as well as the need for sustained economic growth translating into more than proportional increases in tax revenues. Options examined to strengthen domestic resource mobilisation and expand fiscal space for social protection and other national priorities, include the introduction of a health-specific social contribution, the rationalisation of tax expenditures, strengthening health taxes, and the gradual replacement of energy subsidies with targeted cash transfers.
The report also analyses options to strengthen social insurance coverage, highlighting the crucial role of formalising businesses and their workers, and analysing the challenges and design options related to reforming the voluntary insurance scheme.
For more information and to access the report (only available in French), visit: https://www.oecd.org/fr/publications/financement-de-la-protection-sociale-au-cameroun_526eff6e-fr.html
Queries should be directed to the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration Communications Office.
