Over the 5-year period from 2018 to 2022, the G7, a group of the world's seven most industrialized countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States), and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), a geopolitical grouping now presented as a competitor to the G7, cumulatively supplied Cameroon with 50% of its imports. According to a recent report from the National Insititute of Statistics (INS), these imports cost CFAF9,672 billion, including CFAF5,581 billion for imports from the BRICS and 4,091 billion for imports from G7 countries. 

"Over the last five years, the BRICS supplied Cameroon with refined petroleum oils worth CFAF581 billion, representing 10% of total imports from the BRICS over the period. It is followed by rice worth CFAF356 billion(6%), wheat worth CFAF329 billion, and medicines worth CFAF275 billion (5%). (...) Products imported from the G7 over the last five years are essentially made up of wheat and meslin, which represents 9% of total imports from the G7 over the period, followed by refined petroleum oils (9%), passenger cars (8%) and medicines (6%)," reads the INS report.

The figures show that Cameroon is heavily dependent on both the BRICS and the G7 for its supplies of food products such as rice and wheat (wheat flour in particular) as well as oil and its by-products. The two blocs supplied Cameroon with CFAF934 billion worth of crude oil over the last five years, with the BRICS supplying a much larger share (CFAF581 billion). 

Source: Business in Cameroon