Consular Services

Fact Sheet of the Republic of Cameroon

General
Area	475,422 Sq.Kms.
Geography	Surrounded by Chad in north, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo in south, CRA in east and Nigeria in west
Capital	Yaounde
Other cities	Douala, Garoua
Population	15.1 million (October 2000; Estimate)
Climate	Tropical, temperature between 19-29 degree
Local Time	: (- ) 3 and half hours IST
Official Language	French, English
Other Languages	N.A.
Religion	Catholics (35%, Protestants (18%), Animists (25%) and Muslims (22%)
National Day	20 May
Currency	Cameroon Franc (US $ 1 = CFA 691(January 2001)
Political System
Form of State	Unitary Republic
Head of State	President Paul Biya; elected by universal suffrage; may serve a maximum of two 7-year terms.
National Government	Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge; consists of PM and Council of Ministers; Includes representatives of the ruling RDPC, the UPC and the UNDP; last reshuffled on April 2001.
National Legislature	National Assembly with 180 members elected by Universal suffrage; sit twice yearly and serve a 5-year term.
Legal system	Based on English common law and Napoleonic Code.
Political parties	A law authorising multiparty system was introduced in December 1990. There are more than 100 registered parties. Rassemblement Decocrataque du Peuple Camenounais (RDPC) - 109 seats; Social Democratic Front (SDF) - 43 seats; Union Nationale Pour la Democratic et le Progres (UNDP)- 13 seats; Union democratique du Cameroun(UDC) - 5 seats. Other parties are Union des Populations Camerounaises and Mouvement pour la Defense de la Republique
Economy
GDP	US$ 9.1 billion (2000)
Real GDP growth	4.2% (2000)
GDP Per Capita	N.A.
Consumer Price Inflation	(- ) 0.6% (2000)
Sector-wise Contribution to GDP
Agriculture	(43.5%)
industry	(20.2%)
services	(36.6%) (1999)
Natural Resources	Crude oil, Cocoa, Timber, Coffee Agriculture :Pineapple, beans, groundnuts, sesame, onions, gum Arabic, cassava, corn, yam, coffee, plantain
Industry	Textiles, plastics, oil, breweries
Current Account Balance	( - )US$ 120 million (2000)
Foreign Exchange Reserves	:US$ 82 million (2000)
External Debt	US$ 10.9 billion (Estimate; 2000)
External Trade Exports (FOB)	US$ 2.014 billion (2000)
Imports (FOB)	US$ 1.479 billion (2000)
Principal Exports	Crude oil, coca, timber, cotton
Principal Imports	Capital goods, food and fuel
Main destinations of exports	France (22%), Spain (13.9%), Italy (12.3%) (1999)
Main origins of imports	France (35%), Germany (5.7%), Italy (3.7%) (1999)