Paris will host the « Ensemble Back Home 2026 » forum on September 18 and 19, organized by Réseau Ensemble with support from the Cameroonian embassy in France. More than 400 people are expected for two days of panel discussions built around a goal the organizers have been stating for months: converting part of the savings held by Cameroonians abroad into concrete investment inside the country.
The figure driving the whole program is remittances. According to the organizers, the Cameroonian diaspora sent roughly 650 billion FCFA home in 2025, compared with an annual average of 450 billion FCFA over the past five years, an 8% rise in one year. Largely spent on supporting families who stayed behind, this money sits at the heart of the forum's wager: redirecting a fraction of it toward more structured investment vehicles.
Four themes dominate the discussions: diaspora bonds, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, and financing for real-estate and agricultural projects. On the first point, the Cameroon Real Estate Corporation (SIC) and the Central African financial market regulator Cosumaf are already working to structure a diaspora bond dedicated to housing, though no launch date or target amount has been announced yet.
Ambassador Magnus Ekoumou will lead the diplomatic delegation, alongside several government members and sports figures who once wore the Indomitable Lions jersey, including former defenders Aurélien Chedjou and Stéphane Mbia. Their presence reflects the organizers' aim to reach beyond business circles toward a wider diaspora audience, notably younger generations born or settled in France.
This economic push stands in contrast with another figure released the same week: of the 252,830 new voters registered on Cameroon's electoral rolls between January and August 2026, only 234 lived abroad. The diaspora's financial mobilization, measured in hundreds of billions of FCFA, thus contrasts with electoral participation that remains marginal, a gap several diaspora associations had already flagged after Elecam published these figures.
Neither Réseau Ensemble nor Cameroonian authorities have so far announced a target amount for the housing diaspora bond, nor a firm timeline for its launch. The September 18-19 forum is meant above all to set a framework for discussions expected to continue well beyond Paris, among financial partners, diplomats and diaspora associations.
