The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Communauté Economique et Monetaire de l’Afrique Centrale – CEMAC) is an African regional organisation. It was founded in 1993 to replace the former Customs and Economic Union of Central Africa (Union Douanière et Economique des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale – UDEAC) of 1964. The organisation is based in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

Six countries in western Central Africa are members of CEMAC: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo. More than 35 million people live in the CEMAC member states. CEMAC is part of the CFA Zone and with the exception of Equatorial Guinea, where Spanish is spoken, all of the member states are francophone countries. The CEMAC region is rich in mineral resources, with oil and gas exports accounting for almost 80 per cent of the region’s exports. However, none of the CEMAC member states is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Despite the abundance of natural resources, the majority of the population in the member states still lives in poverty. In connection with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), GTZ is assisting CEMAC by promoting a project in Bangui called “Strengthening Governance in Central Africa’s Extractive Sector”.

In April 2007, key measures to thoroughly restructure CEMAC were agreed on at a summit meeting of the Central African states. This involves transforming the former Executive Secretariat into a commission based upon the European Union and with an equal number of commissioners from each member country. This is a move designed to strengthen and motivate the regional organisation.

CEMAC has several institutional bodies such as the Conference of Heads of State, the Council of Ministers and the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) based in Yaoundé (Cameroon).

In addition to harmonising and integrating trade and economic relations into the Central African market, CEMAC aims to set up a joint airline, AIR CEMAC, with the involvement of South African Airways (SAA).

Further information

• Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale (CEMAC)
  www.cemac.int
• Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
  http://www.eitransparency.org
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