Data-center law in Cameroon

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-04

Cameroon has no data-center-specific land-use, environmental-review, energy-grid, water-utilities, construction, or air-operations statute; a data center would be sited and permitted under the country's general regulatory apparatus, or could seek incentives under Loi n°2013/004 du 18 avril 2013 fixant les incitations à l'investissement privé en République du Cameroun, as amended by Loi n°2017/015 du 12 juillet 2017.

That law fixes incentives for private investment generally, with the stated aim of favouring, promoting, and attracting productive investment to develop activities oriented toward strong, sustainable, and shared economic growth and employment; it applies to Cameroonian or foreign, resident or non-resident, natural or legal persons undertaking investment operations, and excludes sectors already governed by particular texts, notably the upstream petroleum sector, mining, and gas, as well as the general regime of partnership contracts.

An investor must hold an agrément (approval), granted by the minister in charge of private investment after the finance minister's concurring opinion, to claim any incentive.

During an "installation phase" of up to five years from the agrément, an approved investor is exempted from registration duties on incorporation or capital-increase acts, registration duties on leases and property-transfer duties tied to the investment programme, VAT on foreign-sourced services for the project's setup, business licence tax (patente), and customs duties and import VAT on equipment tied to the programme, with direct removal of that equipment from customs.

During an "operating phase" of up to ten years, the investor may obtain exemptions or reductions on a further list including the minimum-perception tax, corporate income tax, tax on income from movable capital on dividend distributions, the special tax on income paid to foreign service providers during project development, and customs duties on imported equipment, construction materials, and consumables with no local equivalent, plus loss carry-forward for five years.

Non-compliance with the agrément's conditions draws administrative, tax, and financial sanctions, ranging from a formal notice through a fine to withdrawal of the agrément, only after a 30-day formal notice goes unanswered; the law states no fixed fine amounts.

A separate implementing order, Arrêté n°366 du 19 novembre 2013, sets out further modalities for the fiscal and customs advantages the law creates, and a further order, Arrêté n°005140/CAB/MINMIDT/SG/DAJ du 10 septembre 2013, fixes the composition of the application file for those advantages; neither order's own text is confirmed here.

01

Instruments on record

1 instrument on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Public agreements

What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?

Loi n°2013/004 du 18 avril 2013 fixant les incitations à l'investissement privé en République du Cameroun

In force

Loi n°2013/004 du 18 avril 2013

Effective 2013-04-18 · Applies to private

Cameroon's general private-investment incentives law, adopted by the National Assembly and promulgated by the President on 18 April 2013, later amended by Loi n°2017/015 du 12 juillet 2017.

It aims to favour, promote, and attract productive investment to develop activities oriented toward strong, sustainable, and shared economic growth and employment, and applies to investment operations involving the creation, extension, renewal, restructuring of assets, or transformation of activities by a Cameroonian or foreign, resident or non-resident, natural or legal person; it excludes sectors already governed by particular texts, notably the upstream petroleum sector, mining, and gas, as well as the general regime of partnership contracts.

An investor must hold an agrément (article 18), granted by the minister in charge of private investment on the finance minister's concurring opinion (article 19), to claim any incentive.

During an installation phase of up to five years from the agrément, the investor is exempted from registration duties on incorporation or capital-increase acts, registration duties on professional-use property leases and transfer duties on property acquired for the programme, VAT on foreign-sourced project-setup services, business licence tax (patente), and customs duties and import VAT on programme equipment, with direct customs removal of that equipment (article 6).

During an operating phase of up to ten years, the investor may obtain exemptions or reductions on the minimum-perception tax, corporate income tax, tax on income from movable capital on dividends, the special tax on income paid to foreign service providers during project development and construction, and customs duties on imported equipment, construction materials, and consumables without a local equivalent, plus a five-year loss carry-forward (article 7).

Non-compliance with the agrément's conditions draws administrative, tax, and financial sanctions, from a formal notice through a fine to withdrawal of the agrément, applicable only after a 30-day formal notice goes unanswered (articles 27-28); the law itself states no fixed fine amounts.

Source: Full text of law

Every entry cites the instrument it describes. None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the record: all jurisdictions.