What 4,665 companies in our directory add up to. Every figure below is a count of records we hold, and every one of them can be downloaded and checked.
These are counts of the companies in this directory, not a census of Cameroonian business. The directory is built from public registers, press reporting and companies that have claimed their own listing, so young and urban firms are better represented than old and rural ones. Read the numbers as a sample with a known bias rather than a national total.
Figures current as of 31 October 2026
Primary sector only. A company working across several is counted once, under the one it leads with.
| Category | Companies | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health & Healthtech | 1,626 | 34.9% | |
| Banking & Insurance | 646 | 13.8% | |
| Other | 574 | 12.3% | |
| Oil & Gas | 440 | 9.4% | |
| Manufacturing & Industry | 372 | 8% | |
| NGO & Social Enterprise | 303 | 6.5% | |
| Construction & Real Estate | 261 | 5.6% | |
| Telecoms & Infrastructure | 84 | 1.8% | |
| Creative Industries & Media | 73 | 1.6% | |
| Education & Edtech | 66 | 1.4% | |
| IT Services & Software | 62 | 1.3% | |
| Professional Services | 32 | 0.7% | |
| Fintech & Digital Finance | 31 | 0.7% | |
| Hospitality & Tourism | 29 | 0.6% | |
| Forestry & Timber | 26 | 0.6% | |
| Agriculture & Agribusiness | 12 | 0.3% | |
| E-commerce & Retail | 10 | 0.2% | |
| Logistics & Transport | 7 | 0.2% | |
| Food & Beverage | 6 | 0.1% | |
| Cleantech & Energy | 5 | 0.1% |
Where the head office sits, which is not always where the work happens.
| Category | Companies | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Centre | 1,970 | 42.2% | |
| Littoral | 760 | 16.3% | |
| South-West | 375 | 8% | |
| North | 341 | 7.3% | |
| West | 320 | 6.9% | |
| Far North | 256 | 5.5% | |
| Adamawa | 198 | 4.2% | |
| South | 191 | 4.1% | |
| East | 110 | 2.4% | |
| North-West | 87 | 1.9% | |
| National | 57 | 1.2% |
Startups, established SMEs, large enterprises, cooperatives and non-profits.
| Category | Companies | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| SME | 509 | 10.9% | |
| NGO | 306 | 6.6% | |
| Startup | 120 | 2.6% | |
| Cooperative | 1 | 0% | |
| Other | 1 | 0% | |
| Not recorded | 3,728 | 79.9% |
Self-reported by claimed listings; taken from public reporting for the rest.
| Category | Companies | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Stage | 8 | 0.2% | |
| MVP | 3 | 0.1% | |
| Growth | 3 | 0.1% | |
| Established | 2 | 0% | |
| Not recorded | 4,649 | 99.7% |
Most Cameroonian companies are bootstrapped, and the figures say so plainly.
| Category | Companies | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 84 | 1.8% | |
| Bootstrapped | 20 | 0.4% | |
| Seed | 8 | 0.2% | |
| Grant-funded | 6 | 0.1% | |
| Series A | 2 | 0% | |
| Not recorded | 4,545 | 97.4% |
Founding year, grouped by decade. Companies whose founding year we do not hold are shown separately rather than dropped.
| Category | Companies | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 2 | 0% | |
| 1900s | 2 | 0% | |
| 1910s | 1 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 1 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 3 | 0.1% | |
| 1970s | 6 | 0.1% | |
| 1980s | 4 | 0.1% | |
| 1990s | 6 | 0.1% | |
| 2000s | 14 | 0.3% | |
| 2010s | 31 | 0.7% | |
| 2020s | 25 | 0.5% | |
| Not recorded | 4,570 | 98% |
How much of the directory has been confirmed by the companies themselves.
| Category | Companies | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered Business | 3 | 0.1% | |
| Verified Business | 6 | 0.1% | |
| Unclaimed | 4,656 | 99.8% |
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Every number on this page is produced by counting rows in our own directory at the moment you load it. Nothing is modelled, weighted or extrapolated. Where a record does not carry a value the row is counted as not recorded and shown that way, because a missing figure and a zero are different things.
The files are yours to use. Cite Cameroon Business Review and link back, and tell us if you find an error — we will fix the record.
