Cameroon has announced a major crackdown to recover more than 500 million US dollars in unpaid taxes and customs duties linked to undeclared gold exports.
The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development said the recovery exercise will begin on 1 August 2026, following findings from the 2023 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) report, which revealed a significant gap between officially declared gold production and the volume of gold shipped out of the country.
Authorities said the issue was not missing gold but lost state revenue, as some operators exported gold through unofficial channels without paying required taxes and customs duties.
The Government is targeting operators who failed to meet their obligations between the 2023 and 2025 fiscal years, including 51 companies involved in traditional gold extraction that allegedly underreported production, and 33 newly identified mining sites whose output had not been declared or taxed.
The ministry said the recovery exercise could generate at least 300 billion CFA francs (about $524 million) for the state, helping to address revenue losses identified in the EITI report.
Cameroon also plans to introduce a real-time gold production tracking system to prevent future revenue leakages. The move comes as the government projects that income from new mining projects and reforms in the gold sector could exceed 1 trillion CFA francs (about $1.75 billion), potentially making mining the country’s largest source of state revenue ahead of oil.