The "Ensemble Back Home" forum returns to Paris for its second edition on September 18-19, 2026, at the Fondation Lucien Paye, under the theme "France is in Africa and Africa is in France: the diaspora creates the link."
Organized by Réseau Ensemble, with support from the Cameroonian embassy in France, the event is expected to bring together more than 400 participants around entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, project financing and "Diaspora Bonds" — bonds designed to capture savings from Cameroonians abroad.
The event comes as remittances from the Cameroonian diaspora reached 652 billion FCFA in 2024, roughly $1.2 billion, up 8% year-on-year — 35% of it originating from France, the top source country for these flows.
Cameroon's Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDEC) is separately running a feasibility study, called DIASDEV, for a savings product dedicated to the diaspora. The stated goal: convince 500,000 Cameroonians abroad, including 114,000 in the United States, to mobilize at least 500 billion FCFA per year over ten years. Currently, according to Treasury Director General Moh Sylvester Tangongho, most of these transfers fund everyday expenses — healthcare, school fees — rather than productive investment.
