Cameroon Moves to Track Hidden Financial Assets, With World Bank Help

By Damian Maabo, with field reporting by Clarice Arrey Tarkang and Elvis Kana.

Since 2024, the World Bank has been helping Cameroon understand and apply the international standard on the automatic exchange of financial account information. A technical assistance mission has now brought banks, insurance companies, investment structures and professional associations to the table with the tax authorities. The goal is simple to state and hard to achieve: know where financial assets are held, by whom, and in what amounts.

Why information sharing matters

Tax evasion costs countries large amounts of lost revenue, and much of it depends on money moving where tax offices cannot see it. That is the starting point for the work now under way in Yaoundé: information sharing is crucial, and it only works if processes are set up at international level.

The standard is a framework with specific rules for financial accounts and strong safeguards. Participants in Yaoundé did not only discuss the technology. They also discussed how the data is kept confidential and protected, and which financial regulators should check that declarations are accurate.

The World Bank's argument

Nana Akua Achia Amoako Mensah, a World Bank expert, framed the issue in terms of what Cameroon cannot afford to leave uncollected. She said the country, like many in the region, faces a gap between the demand for public services, infrastructure and social investment and the domestic revenue available to pay for them.

“Greater tax transparency, knowing where financial assets are held, by whom it is held and in what amounts, is one of the most powerful tools that we have for any tax administration to bridge the gap between what is owed and what is actually collected.”

— Nana Akua Achia Amoako Mensah, World Bank expert

What it could change

Domestic revenue is the theme that links this story to the rest of our round-up. If the tax office can see accounts, it can check them against what people declare. That makes the personal income tax drive (our story on the income tax filing drive) more credible, because the threat of an audit becomes concrete.

It also raises a trust question that officials seem aware of: citizens and companies will only accept wider data collection if confidentiality is real. The discussion on data protection, which featured in the sessions, is therefore as important as the exchange itself.

For readers who want the international background, the OECD maintains a portal on the standard and its implementation.

A deadline set in 2024

Cameroon has been a member of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes since 2012. In February 2024, the Forum announced that the country had committed to implement the standard on automatic exchange of financial account information by September 2026. At that point, 125 of the Forum's 171 members had committed to a date. Finance Minister Louis-Paul Motaze presented the step as a move towards tax fairness and better domestic resource mobilisation.

The World Bank mission in Yaoundé in September 2026 therefore came at the very end of that timetable. According to Cameroon Tribune, it brought together banks, insurers, the central bank BEAC, the banking regulator COBAC and the National Financial Investigation Agency, under a World Bank results-based programme. Abdoulaye Fayçal, who heads legislation and international relations at the tax directorate, told the paper that the international standards are being implemented progressively as part of the fight against cross-border fraud and evasion.

As of early November 2026, we had found no public confirmation that a first exchange has taken place, so the commitment should be read as work in progress. Banks have a second reason to pay attention: in March 2026, IMF directors said faster anti-money-laundering reforms were paramount for Cameroon to leave the Financial Action Task Force grey list.

What to watch next

The work described so far is meetings and technical preparation. The things to look for are confirmation that first exchanges have taken place, a legal text covering the declarations, and the first public results in revenue.

Sources and further reading: OECD AEOI Implementation Portal, World Bank in Cameroon, Cameroon Directorate General of Taxation, OECD Global Forum: Cameroon commits to automatic exchange, Cameroon Tribune, 18 September 2026, IMF: 2026 Article IV consultation with Cameroon. Field reporting: Clarice Arrey Tarkang and Elvis Kana. Context comes from the OECD Global Forum, Cameroon Tribune and the IMF. Updated 7 November 2026.

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