Cameroon-UK Trade Drops 32%, Led by Sharp Decline in Oil Flows

Trade between Cameroon and the United Kingdom fell sharply in the 12 months through March 2026, even as the stock of British direct investment in Cameroon had continued to rise at the end of 2024.

Bilateral trade totaled £242 million, or about CFA185 billion, down 32%, or £114 million, from a year earlier, according to the latest UK government trade and investment factsheet on the two countries, published July 31, 2026.

For comparison, bilateral trade totaled £321 million over the 2025 calendar year, up 17.2% from 2024. The two periods overlap, however, and should not be treated as directly comparable consecutive reporting periods.

Over the 12 months through March 2026, UK exports to Cameroon fell 23.7% to £87 million. British imports from Cameroon declined more sharply, down 36% to £155 million. The UK consequently recorded a £68 million trade deficit with Cameroon, compared with £128 million a year earlier.

The contraction was almost entirely concentrated in goods. Goods trade fell £111 million, or 48.9%, to £116 million, while services trade declined by just £3 million, or 2.3%, to £126 million. Services therefore accounted for 52.1% of bilateral trade during the period, compared with 47.9% for goods.

UK purchases of Cameroonian crude oil fall 67.4%

Among goods, for which product-level data are reported on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, crude oil recorded the steepest decline. UK purchases of Cameroonian crude totaled £37.2 million, or about CFA28.4 billion, in the 12 months through March 2026, down 67.4% from a year earlier. Imports of wood and cork also fell 18.1% to £20.9 million.

Other Cameroonian exports gained ground. UK imports of fruit and vegetables rose 37% to £22.8 million, while purchases of coffee, tea, cocoa and related products increased 60.1% to £4.5 million. Imports of crude rubber climbed 49% to £1.4 million.

On the British side, the main categories of goods exported to Cameroon remained relatively small. Sales of beverages and tobacco reached £3.5 million, up 82.5%. Car exports totaled £3 million, a 4.6% increase, while general industrial machinery accounted for £2.2 million, down 1.8%.

UK share of Cameroonian imports drops to 1.1%

The recent decline in trade follows a sharp reduction in the UK’s share of Cameroon’s imports. According to data compiled by the Department for Business and Trade from the Office for National Statistics and UN Trade and Development, the UK’s share of Cameroon’s total imports of goods and services fell to 1.1% in 2024 from 2.7% in 2023.

The decline was particularly pronounced in services, where the UK’s share dropped to 3% from 8.5%. Its share of goods imports fell to 0.5% from 0.8%. These figures cover 2024 and therefore should not be directly equated with the contraction in bilateral trade recorded in the 12 months through March 2026.

Cameroon also remains a minor trading partner for the UK. In the 12 months through March 2026, it ranked as Britain’s 128th-largest trading partner and accounted for less than 0.1% of total UK trade.

In 2025, about 300 VAT-registered UK businesses exported goods to Cameroon, while roughly 100 imported goods from the country. The figures are rounded to the nearest hundred and exclude, among others, businesses whose declarations fall below the customs statistical thresholds used by HM Revenue & Customs.

UK direct investment stock reaches £98 million at end-2024

The recent decline in trade contrasts with the trajectory of British direct investment in Cameroon. The UK’s direct investment stock in the country stood at £98 million, or about CFA75 billion, at the end of 2024, up 10.1%, or £9 million, from the end of 2023.

The figure represents the accumulated stock of direct investment at that date, rather than new investment made during 2024. The Department for Business and Trade defines the stock as the cumulative value of previous investments, net of disinvestment.

Cameroon’s direct investment stock in the UK, by contrast, stood at £3 million, or about CFA2.3 billion, at the end of 2024. Its change from 2023 was either zero or less than £500,000. British investment stock in Cameroon was therefore nearly 33 times larger.

The UK factsheet does not identify the companies or sectors behind the £9 million increase in British direct investment stock between the end of 2023 and the end of 2024. It also does not establish whether that growth continued in 2025 or 2026.

Amina Malloum