The markets of Central Africa

Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic share a central bank, the BEAC, and a single currency, the Central African CFA franc. For an investor that means one currency risk rather than six, and a legible monetary policy framework.

In April 2026 the Monetary Policy Committee held its rates unchanged, with the tender rate at 4.75%. Inflation remains contained below the 3% community norm, and foreign reserves cover a little over four months of imports.

That relative stability is the foundation on which a capital market can be built. It does not remove sovereign risk, which remains real and differs materially between states.

Established in 2001, COSUMAF has since 2019 been the sole securities regulator for the six CEMAC states, following its absorption of Cameroon's financial markets commission. In the same reform, BVMAC absorbed the Douala Stock Exchange and the BEAC was designated regional central securities depository.

In practice: one licence opens access to six markets. A Cameroonian issuer can raise from Gabonese or Congolese investors under a single prudential regime, without stacking national authorisations.

Purpose Capital operates under COSUMAF licence as a brokerage firm, subject to the prudential ratios, transaction controls and client-asset segregation obligations that come with it.

This is currently the region's most active segment. Government securities outstanding rose 16% in 2024 to roughly FCFA 7,437bn, or close to 9.6% of CEMAC GDP.

National treasuries' indicative programmes for 2026 total around FCFA 3,907bn, issued through treasury bills (BTA) and treasury bonds (OTA). Average yields observed in 2024 were near 6.7% on bills and 8.7% on bonds.

For a regional institutional investor this offers a risk-return profile rarely available elsewhere in the franc zone. In exchange it demands diversification across sovereign names: debt levels differ significantly between states.

The BVMAC equity segment remains very shallow: seven listed companies since May 2026, with capitalisation of roughly FCFA 478bn at 31 December 2025, when the board still counted six, of which around FCFA 70bn is free float. The bond segment stood at roughly FCFA 1,305bn outstanding on the same date.

Two recent developments are worth attention. The first listing of BGFI Holding Corporation, in May 2026, involved an operation of roughly FCFA 126bn, an order of magnitude capable of changing the market's depth. In parallel, BVMAC launched a programme to prepare companies for listing and has stated a target of 100,000 securities accounts.

We do not present this market as mature. It is illiquid, concentrated in sovereign debt, and equity culture is still being built. That is the work.

The regional economy is still shaped by hydrocarbons, but recent growth has come from elsewhere. The BEAC attributes the resilience of activity to the non-oil sector: subsistence and cash-crop agriculture, mining, manufacturing and services.

BEAC projections describe a medium-term consolidation, with real GDP growth strengthening gradually through 2028. Near-term forecasts vary by vintage: the April 2026 Monetary Policy Committee used 2.9% for the year, against 3.3% in the monetary policy report.

That diversification is precisely what creates demand for market financing: growing non-oil companies that cannot all fund themselves through bank credit alone.

The CEMAC zone has around sixty-three million inhabitants (World Bank, 2023), and its urban population is growing markedly faster than its total population. Douala, Yaoundé, Libreville, Brazzaville and N'Djamena concentrate a rising share of economic activity, consumption and formal savings.

That concentration bears directly on our work: it creates demand for housing, infrastructure, financial services and energy, and therefore long-term financing needs that bank credit alone does not cover.

It also creates the pool of savings that could meet them. Connecting the two is precisely what a capital market is for.

The Congo Basin is the world's second-largest tropical forest and the planet's foremost net forest carbon sink. That ecological reality is also a financial asset, and one that remains very lightly structured.

The instruments exist elsewhere: green bonds, sustainability-linked bonds, financing backed by carbon credits. Transposing them to the CEMAC zone requires a credible certification framework, governance of proceeds, and issuers prepared to accept the reporting obligations that come with them.

We regard this segment as structurally promising over the medium term, and we would rather say so carefully: it still has to be built.

The Central African Securities Exchange, based in Douala, has been the region's single marketplace since the Douala and Libreville exchanges merged. Trading sessions are held every business day under a calendar published annually.

The market runs on notices: every corporate action, principal amortisation, interest payment or quarterly summary is the subject of a numbered notice issued by the exchange. Following those notices is the most reliable way to know the market's actual state, more so than the press.

Access is only through a brokerage firm licensed by COSUMAF. Purpose Capital is one of those intermediaries.

The deepest segment remains government securities. Outstanding stock passed FCFA 10,000bn in 2026, fifteen years after the market opened, with Gabon and Congo alone accounting for close to 61% of securities in circulation.

Treasury bonds now make up more than 80% of that stock, a sign of lengthening maturities. Average issuance costs have tightened, however, and the subscription rate at auction has fallen, reflecting less abundant demand.

The equity segment remains shallow. The gap between the two is precisely what defines the work to be done.

Investing in the regional market requires a securities account with a licensed brokerage. Onboarding includes the client due diligence the regulation requires, without which no order can be executed.

The order is then routed to BVMAC, executed in session, and settled by delivery versus payment. Securities are registered in your name with the Cellule de Règlement et de Conservation des Titres (CRCT), which acts as central securities depository on behalf of the BEAC.

At every stage, client assets are segregated from the intermediary's own. That is a regulatory obligation, and it is what protects the investor should the intermediary fail.