Cameroon -- Licensing Requirements Regulatory Overview

The CFA Franc in Cameroon is currently stable with active institutional support and no immediate threat of devaluation, though fiscal and external pressures require continued monitoring.

Financial Stability: Risks to the stability of the financial system.

Consumer Protection: High volatility and lack of recourse for users.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) / Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT): Potential for illicit activities due to anonymity.

Lack of Legal Tender Status: Cryptocurrencies are not recognized as legal tender within the CEMAC zone.

This was true when written but is no longer. A legal framework exists: Reglement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 (in force 1 August 2022) introduced 'jetons numeriques' and 'actifs numeriques' into CEMAC market law (arts. 76 and 160), and the COSUMAF Reglement general du 23 mai 2023 (in force 24 May 2023) created the PSAN regime — exploitation d'une plateforme de negociation d'actifs numeriques is an enumerated service requiring COSUMAF agrement. Reglement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 decembre 2024, art. 42(1), separately forbids exercising VASP activity without prior approval. What remains true is the practical conclusion: no implementing instructions have been issued, no licensed PSAN is publicly known, and COBAC D-2022/071 still denies exchanges access to banking services.

Second half is correct: COBAC-supervised institutions (banks, microfinance, payment institutions, bureaux de change) are prohibited by Decision COBAC D-2022/071 from holding, exchanging or converting crypto-assets, so regulated-sector custody is indeed impossible. First half is wrong as of 2026: 'conservation d'actifs numeriques pour le compte de tiers' is an enumerated PSAN service under the COSUMAF Reglement general du 23 mai 2023 and requires COSUMAF agrement, and the CEMAC VASP definition in Reglement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM expressly covers safekeeping of virtual assets.

Substantially right, with the issuer mis-stated. Payment services and e-money in CEMAC are governed by Reglement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 decembre 2018 relatif aux services de paiement dans la CEMAC (with COBAC prudential norms, e.g. Reglement COBAC R-2019/02 for etablissements de paiement); the licensing/prudential authority is COBAC, not BEAC alone. Etablissements de paiement are among the assujettis covered by COBAC D-2022/071 and so may not handle crypto-assets, and there is indeed no crypto-specific payment licence at the COBAC layer.

A VASP/PSAN authorisation regime does exist and covers Cameroon, at CEMAC level. (i) The COSUMAF Reglement general du 23 mai 2023 (in force 24 May 2023) creates the prestataire de services sur actifs numeriques status, defines jetons numeriques functionally (art. 336: 'tout bien incorporel representant, sous forme numerique, un ou plusieurs droits'), reserves digital-token placement to PSAN, and requires COSUMAF agrement for buying/selling digital assets against legal currency, third-party custody, operating a trading platform, order reception/transmission, portfolio management, advice and placement. (ii) Reglement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 decembre 2024 defines 'actifs virtuels' and 'prestataires de services d'actifs virtuels', makes them assujettis, and at art. 42(1) provides that no one may carry on VASP activity professionally without prior approval or authorisation from the competent authority (art. 39: 10-year record retention; art. 42(5)(a): originator/beneficiary travel-rule information). The record's practical conclusion is nevertheless close to reality: no implementing instructions have been published, no PSAN agrement is publicly known, and COBAC D-2022/071 continues to prohibit supervised institutions from any crypto dealing. The accurate framing is 'a regime exists in law but is not operational', not 'no regime exists'.

Entities seeking to operate in the crypto space would likely face a lack of legal recognition and significant operational hurdles, particularly concerning banking relationships.

Capital Requirements: For financial institutions, BEAC and COBAC impose strict capital requirements (e.g., minimum capital for banks, microfinance institutions, payment institutions). Any future VASP license would likely have similar prudential requirements.

Loi n° 2016/007 du 12 juillet 2016 is Cameroon's PENAL CODE (portant Code Pénal), not an AML/CFT law. Cameroon has no free-standing 2016 AML statute: AML/CFT in Cameroon is governed by the directly applicable CEMAC instrument — Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 (signed at Libreville), which revises Règlement n° 01/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 11 avril 2016. The national layer consists of implementing acts, principally Décret n° 2005/187 du 31 mai 2005 creating ANIF.

The National Agency for Financial Investigation (ANIF) is Cameroon's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) responsible for receiving and analyzing suspicious transaction reports (STRs).

Any future crypto regulation would undoubtedly incorporate robust AML/KYC obligations, likely aligned with FATF recommendations, including customer identification, transaction monitoring, and STR filing.

Local Presence: For most regulated financial activities in Cameroon, a local corporate entity and physical presence are mandatory. This would likely extend to any future crypto licensing.

The BEAC website now provides a dedicated, directly accessible page for all its press releases at https://www.beac.int/beac/communiques-de-presse/, making persistent links to official communiqués readily available rather than challenging to find.

Reference: Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale, Communiqué on Cryptocurrencies, December 10, 2021.

News articles and legal analyses referencing post-election violence and a constitutional crisis in Cameroon are already published and available.

Example (illustrative, not official BEAC link): African Legal Network blog referencing BEAC's stance: https://www.africanlegalnetwork.com/media/cemac-the-central-bank-bans-the-use-of-crypto-currencies-in-the-cemac-zone-alns-monthly-newsletter/ (Note: This is a third-party legal analysis, not the BEAC official site itself, but accurately reflects the directive).

Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016 on the Fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing:

This is the general AML/CFT law in Cameroon. Official government portals may host it.

Reference: Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016 on the Fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in Cameroon.

Finding a direct, public PDF link can be variable, but it's the foundational AML law.

For general information on monetary policy and financial regulation in the CEMAC region.

Oversees financial institutions in the CEMAC zone.

Security Tokens: These are tokens explicitly designed to represent traditional financial assets such as:

Units in collective investment undertakings (funds).

Rights to future profits or revenue streams.

Real estate or other tangible assets.

COSUMAF is the competent CEMAC authority for tokenised financial instruments, but not on the basis the record implies. Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 (in force 1 August 2022) and the COSUMAF Règlement Général adopted 23 mai 2023 create a distinct statutory category — 'jeton' / 'actif numérique' (bien incorporel représentant, sous forme numérique, un ou plusieurs droits, émis/inscrit/transféré via un dispositif d'enregistrement électronique partagé) — and a new class of market intermediary, the prestataire de services sur actifs numériques (PSAN), whose services (conservation d'actifs numériques, achat-vente contre monnaie ayant cours légal, exploitation d'une plateforme de négociation, réception-transmission d'ordres, gestion de portefeuille, conseil, placement) require prior COSUMAF agrément. Classification is by these formal categories, not by an economic-substance/Howey test, and tokens over real estate or other tangible assets are not thereby 'unequivocally securities'. The PSAN regime also remains partly unimplemented: COSUMAF has published no PSAN-specific instruction fixing capital or procedural conditions.

Investment-Contract Tokens (Hybrid Tokens): Tokens that may offer some utility but are primarily marketed or structured with an expectation of profit derived from the efforts of others (the issuer or project team). If the primary driver for acquiring the token is investment rather than immediate consumption or use of a service, it will likely be treated as a security. This is where the "substance over form" analysis is crucial.

Stablecoins: Depending on their structure, stablecoins could be considered securities if they are managed by a third party with an expectation of profit for investors, or if they represent a claim on a basket of assets that itself qualifies as a financial instrument. However, they are more often viewed through a monetary or payment lens by the BEAC.

Tokens Generally NOT Considered Securities (but may face other regulations):

Cryptocurrencies are not legal tender anywhere in the CEMAC zone: only the franc CFA BEAC (XAF) is legal tender, and BEAC has issued public warnings on the speculative nature of crypto-assets. The binding instrument, however, is COBAC Décision D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, which prohibits COBAC-supervised institutions (établissements de crédit, EMF, établissements de paiement, changeurs manuels) from acquiring, holding, transferring, converting or booking cryptocurrencies and requires them to detect and report such operations to COBAC and BEAC. It does not bind private persons. Separately, native cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether fall outside the 'jeton numérique' definition of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF, so they are not securities — but services on them are caught by the PSAN regime, which is a licensing regime, not mere 'monetary policy scrutiny'.

Pure Utility Tokens: Tokens that provide immediate access to a specific product or service, without an inherent expectation of profit from the issuer's efforts, are generally not considered securities. However, if they are marketed for future appreciation or grant rights akin to an investment, they could be reclassified.

Correct in substance but the CEMAC term is a 'visa', not an 'authorization'. Under Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 and the COSUMAF Règlement Général adopté le 23 mai 2023 (687 articles, en vigueur le 24 mai 2023, abrogeant le RG du 23 juillet 2008), any appel public à l'épargne in the CEMAC zone requires a prior COSUMAF visa on a document d'information; art. 76 of Règlement n° 01/22 extends the appel-public-à-l'épargne regime to jetons numériques, so token offerings are caught. COSUMAF has 60 business days to examine, extendable by 30 (RG art. 157). Native cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ether), which are not 'jetons numériques', are not caught by the visa regime — they are caught by the separate PSAN regime.

The CEMAC instrument is a 'document d'information', not a 'prospectus'. RG COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023, art. 130: 'le document d'information doit contenir toutes les informations nécessaires' to allow investors to assess the issuer and the instruments. COSUMAF adopted, on 5 décembre 2023, dedicated instructions on the 'modalités de dépôt et contenu du dossier d'appel public à l'épargne' and on the 'contenu du document d'information des valeurs mobilières'. Examination: 60 business days, extendable 30 (art. 157).

Details of the issuer (legal form, management, financial situation).

Description of the token/security being offered.

Information on the project or underlying assets.

Risks associated with the investment.

Ongoing Reporting: Issuers of authorized securities are subject to ongoing reporting obligations, including financial statements and significant event disclosures.

Exemptions: The regulation provides for certain exemptions from the prospectus requirement, similar to traditional securities laws. These typically include:

Private placements: Offerings made only to qualified investors or a limited number of persons.

Offerings below a certain monetary threshold (the regulation specifies thresholds, e.g., for offers whose total value is less than 50 million CFA francs within a 12-month period).

Offerings to existing employees under certain conditions.

The second sentence is correct: no COSUMAF-regulated crypto-asset venue exists. COSUMAF had, as of 29 June 2025, issued no PSAN agrément at all — 'À ce jour, aucun agrément n'a encore été délivré' — because the implementing instruction on PSAN licensing (dossier content, minimum capital, fees, timelines) has still not been published; none of the ten instructions adopted 5 décembre 2023 concerns PSAN. The first sentence is wrong to call the regime 'theoretical': Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF (arts. 145-191) and the RG du 23 mai 2023 create a real, in-force licensing regime; what is missing is the implementing instruction, not the rule. BVMAC (Douala) is the single regional exchange.

Market Conduct Rules: Rules against market manipulation, insider trading, and other illicit practices would apply.

Intermediaries: Any entity acting as a broker, dealer, or custodian for security tokens would need to be licensed and supervised by COSUMAF as a financial market intermediary.

COSUMAF's role is confirmed: it licenses the Dépositaire Central, and adopted an Instruction on the 'conditions et procédure d'agrément du Dépositaire Central' on 5 décembre 2023. BEAC's asserted co-oversight of securities clearing and settlement could not be confirmed from any CEMAC instrument fetched; BEAC's confirmed remit here is monetary and payment-system, not market post-trade supervision. Also, no crypto-asset post-trade infrastructure exists in CEMAC, so the claim is prospective in any event.

The nascent stage of the crypto market in the region.

First half correct: Cameroon has enacted no national crypto-asset statute; the applicable rules are regional. Second half is wrong on the issuer and the instrument type. The binding regional instruments are (i) Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 (in force 1 August 2022), which created the 'actifs numériques' / PSAN category, and its implementing COSUMAF Règlement Général du 23 mai 2023 — both COSUMAF/UMAC Comité Ministériel instruments, not BEAC — and (ii) COBAC Décision D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 for supervised credit and payment institutions. CEMAC/UMAC legislates by règlement, décision and instruction; 'directives from BEAC' is not an instrument category in this union, and BEAC's own contribution is warnings and legal-tender statements, not binding crypto rules.

The fact that most crypto activities might not clearly fall under the "securities" definition and are often addressed by the Central Bank (BEAC) from a monetary stability and consumer protection perspective.

No three-month grace period exists in COSUMAF's documented enforcement practice. COSUMAF's communiqué of 23 octobre 2020 was an immediate prohibition — no PSAN may offer digital-asset custody, buying/selling, platform operation, portfolio management or advice, and 'toute entité ou personne se livrant au démarchage du public s'expose à des poursuites' — with no transition window. COSUMAF's later public warning naming 17 entities (Global Investment Trading, Petronpay Cameroon, Stakexchange, GTX Invest and others) likewise set no deadline; it restated that any activity involving public solicitation of funds requires prior COSUMAF agrément. The record's own id ('cease-and-desist-orders-immediate') contradicts its text ('after a grace period').

Significant monetary penalties are enforced across various sectors, such as telecommunications and trade, with penalties varying according to the nature of the violation.

Legal Proceedings: Potential criminal charges for illegal public offerings.

BEAC has repeatedly and publicly warned that cryptocurrencies have no legal-tender status in CEMAC and are neither issued nor guaranteed by the central bank (Governor Abbas Mahamat Tolli, monetary policy committee, 18 November 2022; and his letter of 29 April 2022 to the CAR Finance Minister objecting to CAR's bitcoin legal-tender law). However, no 'Communiqué de Presse n° 001/GR/2021 du 10 décembre 2021' appears on BEAC's own communiqués index, and BEAC does not number press releases in an 'nnn/GR/yyyy' format. The binding CEMAC instruments are the COBAC decision D-2022/071 of 6 May 2022 and Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF of 21 July 2022 — not a 2021 press release. The claim's closing remark that this is 'not directly about securities classification' is also stale: COSUMAF has regulated actifs numériques since 2022-2023.

No 'Règlement N° 04/CM/COSUMAF/2019 du 07 Octobre 2019' exists; COSUMAF does not use that numbering format and the text is absent from COSUMAF's own and CEMAC's registers. Public offerings of securities in CEMAC (and therefore in Cameroon) are governed by Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 portant organisation et fonctionnement du marché financier de l'Afrique Centrale (in force 1 August 2022), implemented by the Règlement Général de la COSUMAF adopté le 23 mai 2023 (687 articles), which abrogated the previous Règlement Général du 23 juillet 2008. Both replaced the Règlement n° 06/03-CEMAC-UMAC-CM du 12 novembre 2003 framework. The 2022 règlement and the 2023 RG are also what create the PSAN (digital-asset service provider) licensing regime — arts. 144 and 160.