Yaounde, 6 October 2026 (ECA) – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Subregional Office for Central Africa (ECA) will hold the 42nd session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE) for Central Africa from 13 to 15 October 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The statutory meeting will bring together representatives of Central African States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the private sector, academia, civil society, and technical and financial partners.
Held under the theme “Accelerating the implementation of priority reforms to boost the private sector at the midpoint of the decade of economic diversification in Central Africa (2021–2030)”, the session will examine ways to strengthen the effectiveness of ongoing reforms, remove key obstacles to business development, and better mobilize the private sector to support the subregion’s productive transformation. The ICSOE will also serve as a statutory platform for dialogue and policy guidance on key issues aimed at unlocking the potential of the private sector.
The assessment reveals a striking paradox. Since 2017, following the collapse in oil prices, Central African countries have pursued a substantive reform agenda aimed at improving the economic business environment. However, implementation has lagged behind the adoption of reforms, and their impact on businesses remains limited.
Progress has been made in administrative simplification, the digitalization of public services, the modernization of tax administrations, and the strengthening of legal frameworks. However, businesses continue to face significant obstacles, including regulatory complexity, compliance costs, gaps in legal certainty, inadequate productive infrastructure, limited access to finance, skills and innovation gaps, fragmented markets, and weak coordination between public and private stakeholders.
The ECA Subregional Office for Central Africa has prepared a study on the subject for consideration by participants at the 2026 ICSOE. The report highlights a persistent gap between reforms adopted and their effective implementation. In several countries, monitoring systems still focus more on the laws and regulations adopted than on the actual results achieved by businesses.
Financing provides another important indicator. In 2025, with the exception of Burundi, no ECCAS country recorded private-sector credit above 20 % of GDP, compared with a global average of 140.3 %. This financing gap particularly affects SMEs, which need medium- and long-term financing to modernize their equipment, adopt new technologies, and access regional markets.
Productive capacity provides a third indicator. Between 2017 and 2025, manufacturing value added as a share of GDP increased in some countries but declined in several others. No country in the subregion reached the levels recorded in Malaysia or Thailand, while the share of manufacturing employment remained stable or declined in several economies.
“This ICSOE session is intended to support our Member States in identifying and prioritizing the necessary reforms, while, above all, strengthening their implementation, coordination, monitoring and ownership by the private sector. In a more predictable and enabling environment, businesses can increase productive investment, process natural resources locally, foster innovation, create jobs, strengthen regional value chains and seize the opportunities offered by the AfCFTA,” said Jean Luc Mastaki, Director of the ECA Subregional Office for Central Africa.
The stakes of these reforms go well beyond administrative simplification or improvements in business-environment indicators. They directly concern Central Africa’s ability to create more value locally, reduce its external vulnerability and generate productive employment. The ICE will therefore also examine ways to strengthen public-private dialogue, improve coordination between national and regional policies, and promote a bankable-project approach, particularly for productive infrastructure and strategic regional corridors.
“Based on the evidence, we will work with our Member States, the RECs, the private sector and other experts to explore how to create the conditions that will enable businesses to invest more, produce more, create more jobs and play a greater leadership role in driving Central Africa’s economic diversification,” Mr. Mastaki concluded.
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Zacharie Roger MBARGA – Communications Officer
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