Founded in 1947 by the British colonial administration, the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) was once a cornerstone of Cameroon’s agro-industrial landscape. Specializing in bananas, rubber, and palm oil, the corporation quickly rose to become the country’s second-largest employer after the state, with a workforce of around 22,000 at its peak.
Today, CDC oversees more than 41,000 hectares of plantations, divided between rubber (about 20,600 hectares), palm oil (13,900 hectares), and bananas (6,700 hectares), based on recent updates from the Ministry of Agriculture. However, much of this potential is wasted. Once a major contributor to national exports, CDC now struggles to cover basic operational costs.
A freefall in production and revenue
The company’s downfall can largely be traced back to the security crisis in the Anglophone regions, which erupted in 2016. Most of CDC’s assets are located in these conflict zones, and this has had a devastating impact on productivity.
By the end of 2024, banana production stood at just over 16,000 tons, a staggering fall from the nearly 78,500 tons recorded in 2016, according to data compiled by sectoral stakeholders. Rubber output followed the same downward trend, falling to around 8,000 tons, compared to more than 20,000 tons seven years earlier. Meanwhile, crude palm oil production stagnated at roughly 12,000 tons annually, far below the company’s theoretical capacity of 35,000 tons.
Revenue has declined in parallel. CDC’s turnover for 2024 is estimated between 8 and 10 billion FCFA, down from over 30 billion FCFA in 2015, as reflected in sector analyses from the Ministry of Finance. These figures underscore a persistent inability to translate CDC’s vast land holdings into profitable production.
The lingering impact of the security crisis
The primary driver of CDC’s collapse is the protracted conflict in Cameroon’s South-West and North-West regions. More than half of the corporation’s plantations have remained inaccessible or only partially operational over the past two years. Several factories have been destroyed, and an estimated 4,000 workers have either fled or abandoned their jobs, severely limiting the company’s ability to recover.
Internally, CDC is suffering from outdated management practices and weak governance. With a board composed largely of state officials, strategic decision-making has often been delayed by political interference. Recent internal assessments highlight recurring leadership mismatches, with technically critical positions occupied by individuals lacking relevant expertise.
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Additionally, much of CDC’s equipment is aging and inefficient. Reports indicate that nearly 70% of the machinery used in palm oil processing plants is over two decades old, undermining productivity and increasing operational costs.
Limited and misused financing
Between 2018 and 2023, the government provided roughly 21.9 billion FCFA in financial assistance to CDC, but most of this support went toward covering wage arrears rather than capital investment. As a result, critical production facilities remain outdated.
At the same time, local banks remain hesitant to provide new financing. Private lenders, wary of CDC’s deteriorating creditworthiness, continue to demand guarantees that the corporation simply cannot provide under current conditions.
Opportunities for recovery
One promising avenue is the introduction of public-private partnerships (PPPs), a model that has proven successful in neighboring Ghana. The Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL), for example, experienced a 27% surge in production between 2018 and 2023, driven by a strategic alliance with agribusiness investors. Although Cameroon has floated similar ideas involving CDC and foreign investors, notably from Asia, discussions have yet to yield concrete results.
There is also significant room for growth in palm oil. Cameroon’s national deficit in palm oil is currently estimated at over 150,000 tons per year. Modernizing CDC’s production capacity could allow the company to meet a portion of this demand, reducing expensive imports from Indonesia and Malaysia while boosting local value creation.
