Fintech is the largest single category in our business directory, and by a wide margin. More than thirty companies are actively building payment, savings, lending or transfer products for the Cameroonian market. Very few of them have escaped the same constraint.
Mobile money remains dominated by the two telecom operators. Everything built on top of that layer — aggregators, gateways, neobanks, savings apps — depends on terms it does not set and margins it cannot control.
Where the value has actually accrued
The companies with durable revenue are mostly the ones selling to businesses rather than consumers: payment gateways taking a cut of merchant volume, and platforms handling reconciliation for firms that would otherwise do it by hand. Consumer wallets have raised more and retained less.
Interoperability is the open question
Every serious player is building toward the same thing: one interface across wallets, banks and cash. Whoever gets there with regulatory cover has a genuine position. Until then the market stays fragmented, which is worse for users than the number of competitors suggests.
The regulatory variable
BEAC's posture on payment institutions and on crypto-adjacent products will decide more of this than any product decision. Several companies in the directory are operating in areas the framework has not clearly addressed.