DR. DAVID MAKONGO’S MINING VISION FOR CAMEROON: From Gold Extraction to National Industrialization

DR. DAVID MAKONGO’S MINING VISION FOR CAMEROON

From Gold Extraction to National Industrialization

Cameroon’s problem is not a lack of mineral wealth—it is a mining-policy and national-vision failure.

With its vast gold potential, Cameroon should not make semi-mechanized mining the centrepiece of its mining economy. Although licences granted to majority Cameroonian-owned companies over areas not exceeding 21 hectares can promote entrepreneurship, local employment and participation, their limited size and capacity cannot deliver the industrial transformation the country needs.

Semi-mechanized mining should serve as an entry point for Cameroonian entrepreneurs—not as a substitute for properly regulated industrial mining.

When small-scale licences are used to extract industrial quantities of gold, politically connected licence holders, foreign financiers and gold traders benefit, while the State loses revenue, communities lose land, workers remain in insecure employment and the country exports its wealth without building lasting industries.

Cameroon must adopt a new mining vision founded on:

Transitioning viable deposits from semi-mechanized to industrial mining;

Reserving meaningful ownership, employment and contracts for Cameroonians;

Establishing gold-processing and refining facilities inside Cameroon;

Training Cameroonians in geology, engineering, technology and mine management;

Ensuring transparent production, traceable exports and proper taxation;

Enforcing worker safety, environmental restoration and corporate social responsibility; and

Making local transformation a binding legal requirement—not an optional promise.

Correcting this policy mistake could generate substantial employment, empower local businesses, develop mining communities, expand national revenue and accelerate Cameroon’s industrialization.

Cameroon must stop measuring mining success by how much gold leaves the ground and begin measuring it by how many jobs, industries, skills and opportunities remain in the country.

That is the heart of Dr. David Makongo’s Mining Vision for Cameroon: transforming mineral wealth into national wealth and extraction into industrialization.