In the Medium-Term Economic and Budgetary Programming Document 2025-2026, prepared by the Ministry of Finance, the government plans to spend 1,663 billion FCFA in 2025 for government employees’ salaries.
This envelope is expected to increase to reach 1,771 billion FCFA between 2026 and 2027, according to analysts at the Ministry of Finance. The document also reveals that during the first three months of 2024, the State spent 332 billion FCFA on payroll, an increase of 33.7 billion FCFA compared to the same period in 2022. The increase is the result of the acceleration in the pace of clearance of reminders, which increased from 32.2 billion FCFA in 2023 to 42.4 billion FCFA in 2024, “reports the Ministry of Finance. T
This administration also notes that the increase mentioned is explained by “the 5% salary adjustment in February 2024 and the increase in the monthly amount of the family allowance from 2,800 FCFA to 4,500 FCFA per child”. For the 2025-2027 triennium, the government anticipates a “growing trend” in the envelope allocated to the salaries of state employees, due to the “persistent nature of salaries, recruitment and various career benefits”. However, the Ministry of Finance indicates that “controlling staff numbers remains the main challenge”.
As a reminder, according to data from the Ministry of Finance, between 2011 and the end of June 2021, the workforce of the Cameroonian civil service increased from 206,212 to 346,557 people, an increase of 68%. During this time, personnel-related expenditure also increased significantly, from 681.4 billion FCFA to more than 1,000 billion FCFA over the same period.
According to figures from the Ministry of Finance, as of June 30, 2020, the Ministry of Secondary Education had 91,177 staff, representing 26% of the state workforce. Next came the Ministry of Defense, with 17% of the payroll corresponding to 83.9 billion FCFA over six months and the Ministry of Basic Education, with 77.4 billion FCFA, or 15.8% of the overall payroll.
SBBC