By Nformi Sonde Kinsai
The Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motazé has praised the personnel of the Directorate General of Customs, DGD for exceptional performance in their contribution to the 2025 state budget despite the challenging and complex global economic situation.
The Minister was speaking at the 101Air Base in Yaounde on January 26, 2026 on the occasion marking this year’s edition of the International Customs Day. The event that was attended by top personalities of all walks of life was placed under the theme: “Customs protecting society through vigilance and commitment.”
After hailing the Commander of the Air Base for hosting the event for several years now, the Minister said the just ended 2025 was marked particularly by complex and contrasted global economic challenges. He stated that internationally, the global economy is still facing multiple challenges. He talked of persisting geopolitical tensions notably armed conflicts in some regions of the world that considerably disrupted global supply chains triggering instability in raw materials markets.
Motazé remarked that fluctuations in fuel prices, persisting inflation pressure in many advanced and emerging economies as well as restrictive monetary policies adopted by main central banks to contain inflation, created an uncertain economic environment unfavourable to growth.
He said within the framework of the difficult global context, the Cameroonian economy was not spared by the effects of this international turbulence. He noted that Cameroon braved through the environment marked by pressure on the purchasing power of households, increase in inputs for enterprises, and constraints on the financing of development. He said the productive sector did not only face many challenges including a rise in production cost, but difficulties of access to credit due to a regional monetary tightening context.
The Minister stated that despite the unfavourable economic storm, the Cameroonian Customs Administration brilliantly face the challenges and delivered the task assigned to them. He said for the past three years since 2023, the Customs Administration crossed the psychological and symbolic FCFA 1000 billion budgetary revenue. He appreciated the exceptional performance maintaining that it demonstrates resilience, determination and professionalism of the Cameroonian Customs personnel.
“By realising FCFA 1,155 billion from the initial target of FCFA 1,136.2 billion in 2025, the Customs Administration did not attain but went beyond its objectives of budgetary revenue mobilisation. This additional amount of close to FCFA 19 billion represents a realisation rate of about more than 101.7% – a remarkable performance in a particularly difficult economic context. This substantial contribution to the state budget shows that the Cameroonian Customs remains a fundamental pillar of our fiscal and national budgetary architecture,” Motazé declared.
Stating that the customs personnel serve the state sometimes far off from their families under difficult conditions, at times even at the peril of their lives, have, thanks to their vigilance, combat customs fraud, contraband, illicit trafficking of prohibited goods and all forms of trans-border criminality, contributing not only to the mobilisation of budgetary resources indispensable for financing development but above all to the protection of the society, economy and the environment.
According to the Director General of Customs, Edwin Fongod Nuvaga, Motazé’s acceptance to preside at the event was a demonstration of government’s constant attention and unwavering support to the Customs Administration.
He disclosed that the International Customs Day is celebrated every January 26 in 186 member countries of the World Customs Organisation, WCO. He said the celebration which was in its 73rd edition was within a global context marked by geopolitical and trade tensions, economic uncertainty and slowdown in growth. He said these factors necessarily had repercussions on the national economy all along the 2025 budgetary period.
Quoting the WCO Scribe, Ian Saunders, Fongod said the International Customs Day is an opportunity for Customs Administrations to pay homage to their personnel devotedness, sensitisation of the public on the mission of Customs and mobilising decisions makers who could help with tools and necessary resources for them to better do their work.
