On-shore VASP in Cameroon
Locally-incorporated VASP that operates under full local jurisdiction, holding all required licenses and registrations.
On-shore VASP is not permitted in Cameroon.
Verdict Details
- Permitted
- no
- Local entity required
- No
- Licensing burden
- None
- Last updated
- 2026-07-13
AML Obligations
- Not applicable — virtual asset activities are prohibited in the CEMAC zone (including Cameroon) under BEAC Communiqué No. 003/GR/2022 (May 2022), making compliance moot for on-shore VASPs.
- If a VASP were hypothetically permitted, CEMAC Regulation No. 02/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/22 (2022) on AML/CFT for Virtual Assets would apply, requiring: customer identification and verification (EUR 1,000 threshold), beneficial ownership identification (25%+ ownership), risk-based EDD for PEPs and high-risk jurisdictions, and suspicious transaction reporting to ANIF (Cameroon's FIU).
- General AML/CFT Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016 and Law No. 2018/002 of 11 January 2018 also define money laundering offenses and penalties.
Key Restrictions
- CEMAC-wide ban (BEAC Communiqué No. 003/GR/2022) prohibits all crypto-asset activities in Cameroon, including exchanges, custody, and payment processing for virtual assets.
- No legal framework exists to license or register VASPs — no specific VASP license, registration regime, or authorization pathway is available.
- Financial institutions (banks, payment institutions, EMIs) are explicitly prohibited from holding or facilitating virtual assets.
- Entities attempting to operate would face severe operational hurdles including inability to access banking services and risk of being deemed to operate outside the legal framework.
Key Risks
- Criminal enforcement risk — operating a VASP violates BEAC's ban and can lead to asset seizure, account freezing, and imprisonment under general financial crime laws.
- Enforcement precedent set by Global Investment Trading (GIT) case — founder arrested, assets seized, company shut down for operating an illegal financial scheme involving crypto.
- Cameroon was under FATF grey-listing with enhanced follow-up (2023 GABAC mutual evaluation), increasing scrutiny on financial sector enforcement.
- Despite the ban, crypto adoption is growing in practice, creating a legal grey zone where informal operators face enforcement risk while formal entry is impossible.
- No legal recourse for disputes, contract enforcement, or insurance — operators operate entirely outside the legal system.
Evidence
This verdict synthesizes the following facts. Each fact links to its primary source(s).
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.
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.
Evidence fact cm.licensing.beac-communiqu-on-cryptocurrencies-december not found (may have been renamed).
No 'BEAC Communiqué No. 003/GR/2022' exists. The real May 2022 act is the Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 relative à la détention, l'utilisation, l'échange et la conversion des cryptomonnaies ou cryptoactifs par les établissements assujettis à la COBAC. It was issued by COBAC (the CEMAC banking supervisor), not BEAC; it is an individual decision addressed to supervised establishments, not a règlement of general application; and it prohibits only those establishments from acquiring, holding, transferring, converting or booking crypto-assets, while requiring them to install internal controls to detect crypto operations and to inform COBAC and BEAC. It does not prohibit holding, buying or selling crypto by the general public, and it does not preclude legal VASP operation — the COSUMAF Règlement Général du 23 mai 2023 in fact provides for PSAN agrément. The six-member list of CEMAC states (Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon) is correct, as is BEAC's identification as the regional central bank.
There is no 'BEAC Cryptocurrency Ban'. Operating a virtual-asset business in Cameroon is not per se a violation of any BEAC communiqué. The relevant exposure is different: (a) a COBAC-supervised establishment that deals in crypto breaches Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 and faces COBAC disciplinary sanctions; (b) anyone providing PSAN services without the COSUMAF agrément required by the Règlement Général du 23 mai 2023 acts unlawfully; and (c) art. 42 of Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 conditions professional PSAV activity on prior agrément or authorisation. Ordinary individuals transacting in crypto are not caught by any of these.
Imprisonment (under general financial crime laws).
Confiscation of assets.
Freezing of accounts.
The substantive claim is right but the instrument identity is wrong. There is no "Regulation No. 02/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/22" and no 2022 CEMAC AML regulation. The instrument is Reglement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, signed at Libreville on 20 December 2024 (CEMAC/UMAC Ministerial Committee, extraordinary session), effective on signature and abrogating all contrary provisions of Reglement n° 01/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 11 avril 2016. It does define virtual assets - art. 2(72): "Digital representation of a value that can be digitally traded, transferred or used for payment or investment purposes... does not include digital representations of fiat currencies, securities and other financial assets already covered by specific regulatory provisions" - and defines prestataires de services d'actifs virtuels; art. 6(e) lists "virtual or digital asset service providers" among the assujettis, so VASPs carry the same AML/CFT obligations as financial institutions. It is a FATF-aligned revision (approved by GABAC Plenary Resolution No. 10 of 28 September 2024). The 2022 CEMAC instrument that touches digital assets is a different one: Reglement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 on the regional financial market.
Loi n° 2016/007 du 12 juillet 2016 is Cameroon's Code Penal, not an AML/CFT law, and it did not create ANIF. Cameroon has no standalone national AML/CFT statute: the framework is the directly applicable CEMAC regulation - today Reglement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 decembre 2024, previously Reglement n° 01/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 11 avril 2016 and before that Reglement n° 01/03-CEMAC-UMAC-CM du 4 avril 2003 - supplemented for supervised financial institutions by Reglement COBAC R-2023/01 on LBC/FT diligences (in force 1 July 2024). ANIF was created by Decret n° 2005/187 du 31 mai 2005 (organisation and functioning of the Agence Nationale d'Investigation Financiere), operational since January 2006 and attached to the Ministere des Finances; its regional legal basis is art. 25 of Reglement n° 01/03-CEMAC-UMAC-CM, which instituted an ANIF in every Central African state.
Il n'existe aucune interdiction générale des crypto-actifs en zone CEMAC et la BEAC n'a émis aucun texte d'interdiction. La mesure de 2022 est la Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, prise par la COBAC (superviseur bancaire), qui interdit aux seuls établissements assujettis à la COBAC de détenir, utiliser, échanger ou convertir des cryptoactifs pour compte propre ou pour compte de clients, de les comptabiliser au bilan, et leur impose un dispositif de détection et une remontée d'information à la COBAC et à la BEAC. Les personnes physiques et les entreprises non assujetties ne sont pas visées. À l'inverse, le Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 21 juillet 2022 (en vigueur le 1er août 2022) admet les 'actifs numériques' et 'jetons numériques' sur le marché financier d'Afrique centrale et soumet les prestataires de services sur actifs numériques à l'agrément de la COSUMAF.
Le fondateur de Global Investment Trading (GIT), promoteur de la plateforme Liyeplimal, est Émile Parfait SIMB — et non 'Emile Parfait Mbori', qui n'existe pas. Le jeton était le Limo / Limo dollar (commercialisé aussi sous le nom LimoCoin) — et non un 'Mofor Coin'. Les faits reprochés sont l'escroquerie et la collecte illégale de fonds : le MINFI avait mis en demeure GIT, parmi 17 entités, de cesser ses collectes illégales de fonds (communiqué d'octobre 2020) et la COSUMAF avait publié des mises en garde en octobre 2020 et juin 2021 pour exercice sans agrément.
Aucune prohibition générale des activités liées aux crypto-actifs n'a été établie en zone CEMAC. L'exploitation d'une plateforme d'échange n'est pas 'hautement illégale' : elle constitue au contraire un service sur actifs numériques soumis à l'agrément de la COSUMAF depuis le Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 21 juillet 2022 et le Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023. Le minage n'est visé par aucun texte CEMAC. Seuls les établissements assujettis à la COBAC sont soumis à une interdiction, en vertu de la Décision COBAC D-2022/071.
Le fondateur est Émile Parfait Simb ; il a été interpellé le 26 mai 2022 puis libéré sous caution deux jours plus tard et a gagné la République centrafricaine — il n'a pas été 'arrêté et détenu' au sens d'une détention suivie. Selon l'enquête d'Afrique XXI, aucune information judiciaire n'avait été ouverte au Cameroun et les plaintes y ont été enlisées ; la seule condamnation connue (7 ans, 1 000 000 FCFA d'amende, 18 décembre 2023) émane de la CRIET du Bénin, juridiction étrangère. L'affirmation selon laquelle 'les procédures se poursuivent devant les juridictions camerounaises' n'est pas étayée.
Verdict Attribution
- Source:
- AI-Generated · Unreviewed
- AI synthesized:
- 2026-07-13 (deepseek-chat)
- Last updated:
- 2026-07-13
- Confidence:
- high
This verdict was produced by an AI model from the underlying facts. Confirm with counsel before relying on it for material decisions.
On-shore VASPs cannot operate in Cameroon — BEAC's CEMAC-wide ban (May 2022) prohibits all crypto-asset activities, no licensing or registration framework exists, and operators face criminal enforcement (asset seizure, imprisonment).
Questions this verdict aims to answer
- What license(s) are required to operate locally?
- What capital, governance, and reporting obligations apply?
- What is the application process and timeline?