The CEMAC foreign exchange regime is governed by the Bank of Central African States, BEAC through Regulation No. 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM is tied to the Euro at a fixed parity and enforces strict capital controls, export repatriation requirements, and authorized banking intermediaries to preserve regional currency reserves.
Core Regulations & Repatriation
Export Repatriation: Exporters are required to repatriate their export earnings to the CEMAC zone. General economic operators are subject to an obligation to repatriate a minimum of 70% of their export revenues to the zone.
Extractive Companies: Mining and petroleum companies are subject to a flexible repatriation regime. The current repatriation requirement of 35% is scheduled to increase to 50% with effect from 1 January 2027, and to 70% with effect from 1 January 2028.
Foreign Currency Accounts: Extractive companies in Cameroon and CEMAC are authorized to hold foreign currency accounts, subject to specific BEAC Instructions.
Transactions & Intermediaries
Authorized Intermediaries: All foreign exchange transactions must be processed through authorized credit institutions, microfinance institutions, or licensed exchange offices, without exception.
Current Account Transactions: Payments in respect of current account transactions for visible and invisible goods and services are generally permitted without restriction; however, they are subject to the requirements of proper documentation and domiciliation.
Transfers Outside CEMAC: Transactions between residents cannot be settled through accounts held outside the CEMAC zone and must instead be processed through local credit institutions.
Definitions for Mastery of the Foreign Exchange Regime of Cameroon and CEMAC
For the purposes of the Regulation No. 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, the terms and acronyms shall be understood as:
l) Administrative Authority: An entity of the State involved in the implementation of foreign exchange regulations.
2) Assent: An opinion whose terms are binding on the competent authority which cannot override them.
3) BEAC or Central Bank: Bank of Central African States.
4) Goods: Physical assets or products on which property rights can be established and whose economic ownership can be transferred from one institutional unit to another through transactions.
5) Currency Exchange Office: Legal entity approved by the Ministry in charge of currency and credit for carrying out manual exchange activity.
6) CIF: (Cost Insurance Freight)
7) CEMAC: Central Africa Economic and Monetary Community.
8) Manual Exchange: Traveller's notes or cheques, sold or purchased at a bank or exchange office against local currencies.
9) CIMA: African Insurance Market Conference.
10) COBAC: Central African Banking Commission
11) Non-resident Account: An account opened in the name of a non-resident person or legal entity.
l2) Resident Account: An account opened in the name of a resident person or a legal entity.
13) Foreign Currency Account: Account denominated in a currency other than the CFA Franc issued by BEAC.
14) Escrow Account: A custody account opened with an authorized institution in the name of a beneficiary creditor and whose resources are immobilized over an agreed period.
15) Guarantee Account: Account opened with a residential establishment to guarantee a contractual commitment made by a debtor.
16) Legal Tender: The quality of the currency in circulation in the CEMAC that no one can refuse to receive for the settlement of transactions denominated in CFA franc.
17) Currency Hedging: A financial technique used to protect against fluctuations in the exchange rate of the currency in which an asset or liability is denominated.
18) Leasing: A professional credit technique involving a contract of lease for movable or immovable equipment, accompanied by a promise to sell to the lessee, at an agreed price taking into account, at least in part, the payments made in respect of the rents.
19) Import/Export Declaration: Document issued by the customs administration attesting to an import or export of goods or services.
20) Currency or Foreign Currency: Currency other than the CFA Francs issued by BEAC.
2l) Domiciliation: Act by which an importer or exporter mandates an approved intermediary to carry out on his behalf the terms of an import or export operation from the initiation to clearance of the operation.
22) Credit Institution: An organisation that carries out banking operations as a regular profession within the meaning of banking regulations in CEMAC countries.
23) Sub-delegated Institution: A legal entity other than a credit institution, exchange office and semi-micro-finance institution, which benefits from a delegation of a credit institution to carry out, under the responsibility of the latter, foreign exchange transactions in the context of its nominal activity, in particular hotels, travel agencies, airport shops and casinos.
24) Foreign or External: Countries other than those of the CEMAC.
25) Euro: Currency having legal tender and liberating power within the countries of the European System of Central Banks.
26) Export: The departure of goods or services to a foreign country or a free zone located on the national territory of one of the CEMAC countries or any other similar foreign area.
27) CFA Franc: Franc of Financial Cooperation in Central Africa or XAF, Currency having legal tender status and liberatory power in the CEMAC countries.
28) FOB: Free On Board
29) GABAC: Action Group against Money-Laundering in Central Africa
30) Import: Entry of goods or services into the CEMAC from abroad or from a tranche zone located in one of the CEMAC countries or from any other similar foreign area.
31) Approved Intermediary: Credit institution, post office administration and for manual foreign exchange transactions, micro-finance institution and approved exchange offices.
32) Portfolio Investment: Cross-border transactions and positions in debt securities or equities, other than direct investment or reserve assets.
30) Import: Entry of goods or services into the CEMAC from abroad or from a tranche zone located in one of the CEMAC countries or from any other similar foreign area.
31) Approved Intermediary: Credit institution, post office administration and for manual foreign exchange transactions, micro-finance institution and approved exchange offices.
32) Portfolio Investment: Cross-border transactions and positions in debt securities or equities, other than direct investment or reserve assets.
37) Non-Resident: An individual or legal entity having his or her habitual residence or centre of economic interest predominating outside the CEMAC, including in particular:- - - - - - - - - -
- Heads of diplomatic missions, diplomats and assimilated, as well as members of their families;
- foreign patients, including long-term patients and the persons accompanying them;
- Tourists;
- Students;
- Civil servants employed in extraterritorial enclaves;
- Embassies, consulates, civil and military missions, international and regional organizations;
- Soldiers on mission;
- Seasonal workers;
- Crew members of ships, aircraft and oil platforms,
- Companies or enterprises which carry out specific temporary tasks in CEMAC countries unless they are registered in the Trade and Personal Property Credit Registry of a CEMAC State, even on a provisional basis.
38) Foreign Exchange Transaction: A spot or forward transaction, manual or automated, the settlement of which involves or implies the conversion of the CFA Franc into another currency and vice versa.
39) Electronic Payment: Payment made at least partially by electronic means of payment, as defined in the E-Money Regulation.
40) Property to extinguish debts, attached to the official currency in circulation in CEMAC Member States.
41) Arm's Length Principle: Rule according to which the prices of transactions between related entities are established by reference to the prices charged by independent companies.
42) Proliferation: Activity aimed at the manufacture, acquisition, development, possession, transport, transfer or use of nuclear, biological, chemical weapons or their means of delivery, in particular for terrorist purposes.
43) Financial Market Regulator: Authority in charge of supervising the financial market in Central Africa.
44) Resident: An individual or a legal entity having its habitual residence or centre of economic interest predominating in CEMAC, even if they stay discontinuously for more than one year in one of the CEMAC countries or intend to pursue an economic activity there for at least one year, including refugees, locally recruited employees of extra territorial enclaves, staff of international organisations who do not have the status of diplomat or equivalent diplomat and branches of multinationals.
45) Foreign Resident: A resident individual who is a national of a country other than CEMAC countries.
46) Input Income: Income that accrues to institutional units in return for their contribution to the production or provision of financial assets and the rental of natural resources to other institutional units.
47) Currency Risk: Uncertainty about the value of one currency against another in the short and medium term in relation to the future change in their respective conversion rates.
48) Service: Intangible service provided by a resident for a non-resident and vice versa.
49) Current Transactions: Flow of goods, services, primary and secondary incomes.
50) Transfer: A transaction executed at least in part electronically on behalf of a payer, through a payment service provider, for the purpose of making funds available to a payee.
5l) VAT: value added tax
52) UEMOA: West African Economic and Monetary Union.
53) CAMU: Central African Monetary Union
54) Securities and Other Financial Securities: Securities and similar rights registered in an account, issued by public or private legal entities, which confer identical rights by category, fungible, freely transferable and movable by purpose of the law, giving access, directly or indirectly, to a share of the issuing entity's capital or a general right of claim on its assets, which include shares representing shareholders' rights, bonds and other debt securities representing creditors' rights as well as shares or shares in undertakings for collective investment in securities.
55) CEMAC Securities: Securities issued in a CEMAC Member State by a public or private legal entity resident and denominated in CFA Franc.
56) Foreign Securities: Securities issued in a CEMAC Member State by a legal person governed by public or private law and denominated in a foreign currency or issued in CFA Franc by a non-resident.
57) Firm Sale: Contract by which the seller transfers ownership of a thing and undertakes to deliver it to the buyer, who undertakes to pay him the price.
58) Emission Area: Space gathering the CEMAC countries using the CFA Franc issued by BEAC.
59) Franc Zone: Monetary cooperation area comprising France and Monaco, the Comoros, the CEMAC Member States, comprising Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, as well as the UEMOA Member States, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, linked to each other by monetary cooperation agreements.