(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s national social security fund (CNPS) announced it collected XAF178.9 billion in social contributions in 2018, up 6.61% compared to the XAF167.8 billion a year earlier.

Good performance is linked to increased number of online declared workers (368,643 in 2017 to 421,129 in 2018, up 14.24%).

In addition, despite the increase in the number of employers, the number of online-declarers remained almost stable at 30,622 (compared to 30,623 in 2017). Other Services (32.5%), trade (12.63%) and Agriculture (10.36%) are the sectors with the most social security coverage.

In the social insurance sector, 65,362 new registrations of the compulsory system were observed in 2018, compared with 60,196 the previous year, an increase by 8.6%, with 67.57% of registered persons being male, and 73.41% under 35 years of age. Overall, there are 780,745 workers active in the compulsory scheme.

With regard to the voluntary scheme, which was introduced in 2014, there was a total of 16,216 new registrations in 2018; 59% of which were male and 79% under 35. A total of 134,883 insured persons are active on this segment.

Total workers registered on both regimes (compulsory and voluntary) in Cameroon in 2018 is estimated at 915,628.

S.A