{"name":"Applied AI in Cameroon — the record","description":"Every announced initiative, deployment, published result and regulation of applied AI on the record for Cameroon, tagged by kind, industry, region and role, sourced and dated. A slice of the State of Applied AI record, maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI.","source":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/cameroon","partOf":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/evidence.json","attribution":"Industrial Research Unit, Straits Institute for Applied AI","updated":"2026-10-29","facet":{"kind":"country","name":"Cameroon","slug":"cameroon","iso2":"CM","region":"Sub-Saharan Africa"},"counts":{"entries":13,"deployments":7,"evidenceImpact":0,"evidenceAdoption":3,"regulation":3,"industries":6,"countries":1,"linked":13},"entries":[{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Education & Training","region":"Cameroon","org":"Ministry of Basic Education (MINEDUB)","text":"Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, Minister of Basic Education, has barred nursery and primary pupils from ChatGPT, Meta AI on WhatsApp, Gemini, Copilot and similar apps for classwork and homework, a Cameroon AI regulation effective at once in state, private, international and faith schools. Regional delegates relay the circular. Officials argue children who outsource answers lose the effort behind literacy, numeracy and reasoning; teachers may still plan lessons with AI.","date":"2026-10-19","source":"https://cameroon-tribune.cm/articles/12035/fr/details_2"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Cameroon","org":"Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Cameroon)","text":"Cameroon's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications opened train.patnucelearning.cm in Yaoundé, giving 15,000 state employees AI training for civil servants plus blockchain, records handling, steering change and project delivery. Five ten-day modules, wholly remote and backed by the World Bank through the PATNUC scheme, let staff gain public-sector AI skills while staying at work.","date":"2026-09-24","source":"https://www.digitalbusiness.africa/cameroun-train-patnucelearning-cm-la-plateforme-numerique-lancee-pour-former-15-000-agents-publics-a-lia-la-blockchain-et-la-transformation-digitale/"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Cameroon","org":"Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications","text":"Cameroon's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications opened train.patnucelearning.cm for AI training for civil servants, part of a digital skills programme for public officials reaching 15,000 workers via PATNUC with World Bank funding. Five certified modules cover blockchain, digital transformation and large language models.","date":"2026-09-21","source":"https://www.theguardianpostcameroon.com/post/8010/en/homeaccelerate-digital-transformation-govt-announces-training-of-15-000-public"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Education & Training","region":"Cameroon","role":"Secondary school teacher","org":"MINESEC","text":"MINESEC assembled over 250 bilingual AI lab simulations in under a month, free and runnable offline, unveiling the secondary-school programme at the Centre AIDL on 17 August 2026. Muluh Godson, National Pedagogical Inspector for Computer Science, gave those figures; Chemistry, Biology, Arts and Letters and Industrial Techniques staff ran demonstrations, and Inspector General Adjaba Biwoli Jean Pierre cast the purpose as learning made interactive, practical, reachable. Minister Nalova Lyonga cautioned that AI stays a tool, pressing structuring, reasoned use and prompting, and asking teachers to raise pupils as creators. Cameroon aims these AI-generated science experiments at schools holding no physical laboratory.","date":"2026-08-17","source":"https://fr.journalducameroun.com/cameroun-lia-le-nouveau-laboratoire-des-lycees-camerounais/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"Cameroon","role":"Clinician / patient","org":"Waspito","text":"Waspito opened AHIM, the African Health Intelligent Model, as an AI health assistant answering 24/7 on WhatsApp in English and French from any country. The Africa-focused platform channels queries, laboratory orders, prescription and record uploads, cover purchases and doctor referral through that WhatsApp health chatbot, while stressing AHIM supplants no clinician: consultation, diagnosis and treatment stay with qualified physicians on its roster. Entry costs nothing; billing falls on whichever care is taken up, from 3,000 FCFA with a general practitioner and 6,000 FCFA with a specialist doctor. Begun 2020 in Cameroon, Waspito reports its own totals: more than 1 million users, over 250,000 patients served, upwards of 2,000 licensed doctors.","date":"2026-06","source":"https://www.facebook.com/MimiMefoInfo/posts/waspito-an-africa-focused-digital-health-platform-founded-in-cameroon-has-launch/1584186856397413/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"Cameroon","role":"GBV case worker","org":"WETECH","text":"WETECH carried Alert GBV Lite, an Android app for AI gender-based violence reporting, into 11 communes of Cameroon's Far North via an outreach drive from 1 to 27 June 2026 with associations ADELPA and ALVFF. Its AI companion for survivors runs psychosocial orientation and structured reporting beside a geolocated SOS button capturing evidence mid-incident, a live service directory, anonymised secure case reporting, offline essentials, and French, English, Pidgin and Fulfuldé screens; without a smartphone or data, USSD code #080# takes a report. Project UNJP/CMR/061/EC, funded by DG ECHO and run by UNFPA Cameroon with FAO, covers it.","date":"2026-06","source":"https://www.camer.be/93809/11:1/cameroun-wetech-deploie-des-solutions-numeriques-innovantes-pour-la-protection-des-femmes-en-zone-de-crise-cameroon.html"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Cameroon","org":"Telecommunications Regulatory Board","text":"Cameroon's Telecommunications Regulatory Board held a three-day expert-led seminar on AI in telecoms regulation for staff, 8–10 April 2026. Topics: everyday AI tools and AI-supported regulatory monitoring.","date":"2026-04-08","source":"https://www.art.cm/fr/article/ia-communication-et-regulation-des-experts-pour-renforcer-les-capacites-du-personnel-de-lart"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"Cameroon","role":"Insurance broker","org":"Cova","text":"Cova switched on AI motor insurance pricing for compulsory cover in Cameroon on 26 February 2026: film the vehicle's carte grise, or a lodging receipt, and the regulated tariff returns in one click, renewal premiums prepayable remotely. Reading fiscal horsepower, use and energy type off the document against the standing tariff grid cuts keying mistakes and compresses sign-up times, by Cova's own account. Collection runs through mobile payment aggregators Maviance, UFIPAY and MaMoni Pay, plus Express Union Microfinance and MaMoni Finances counters. Managing director Virginie Pouna Ngomi framed the automated premium quotation as cover simpler and more dependable, licensed brokers and partner insurers undisplaced; Cova holds a broker licence in the CIMA zone and came via the BimaLab Africa accelerator.","date":"2026-02-26","source":"https://vitrineducameroun.com/2026/02/27/cova-lance-une-solution-basee-sur-lintelligence-artificielle-et-lagregation-de-paiement-mobile-pour-simplifier-lacces-a-lassurance-automobile-obligatoire-au-cameroun/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"Cameroon","role":"Payment operations staff","org":"United Bank for Africa (UBA)","text":"United Bank for Africa's AI chatbot LEO now handles instant cross-border payments for customers in Cameroon, an African first for AI-powered virtual assistant money transfers between countries. It runs on the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), settling in local currency within seconds and sparing users the multi-day waits and higher costs of older channels.","date":"2025-07-17","source":"https://www.237online.com/cameroun-leo-duba-revolutionne-les-paiements-africains/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Cameroon","org":"Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MINPOSTEL)","text":"Yaoundé hosted the unveiling of Cameroon's national artificial intelligence strategy, SNIA, at the National Consultations on AI (CONIA 2025), led by Minister Minette Libom Li Likeng of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Seven pillars structure this AI policy roadmap: sovereignty and governance (proposing a Cameroonian AI Authority and Presidential Council on AI), digital infrastructure and data, multilingual inclusion (featuring GPT Cameroon), sovereign technology systems, workforce and research, sector innovation, and cross-border partnerships. By 2040 officials want 60,000 trained specialists, 12,000 new jobs, and 0.8 to 1.2 percent GDP growth.","date":"2025-07-07","source":"https://www.businessincameroon.com/public-management/1107-14843-cameroon-unveils-ai-plan-to-create-12-000-jobs-by-2040"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Agriculture & Food","region":"Cameroon","role":"Farmer","org":"Agrix Tech","text":"Agrix Tech's AI crop disease diagnosis app is giving Cameroonian farmers instant plant health readings, applying convolutional neural networks to photographed leaves to flag cassava mosaic virus, banana leaf spot and similar infections within 10 seconds at 95% accuracy. Offline functionality means the tool keeps working without connectivity, and it speaks French, English, Bamiléké, Hausa and further regional languages. Farmers trained by the startup reached 7,000 by April 2025 across the West and Northwest regions, with 5,000 users actively relying on this AI-driven plant disease detection tool; those users saw harvests rise 20-25% while cutting excess pesticide use by 30%.","date":"2025-04-29","source":"https://iafrica.com/agrix-tech-ai-empowering-cameroons-farmers-with-smart-agriculture/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Transport & Logistics","region":"Cameroon","role":"Bus and truck driver","org":"Cameroon Ministry of Transport","text":"An AI trucking safety mandate took effect across Cameroon on 1 April 2025: Ym@ne Driver, an AI-powered monitoring system, became compulsory for freight trucks and interurban buses under the Ministry of Transport. Spanning 1,500 vehicles, it spots speeding, phone handling and drowsiness as they occur, having already caught over 32,800 violations. Camtrack, partnered with MTN Cameroon, runs this AI fleet monitoring scheme linking telecoms infrastructure with road-safety technology.","date":"2025-01","source":"https://teleasu.tv/transport-intelligent-ymane-driver-met-le-cameroun-sur-le-podium-africain/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Cameroon","org":"Parliament of Cameroon / President of the Republic","text":"Cameroon AI regulation begins with Law No. 2024/017, which President Paul Biya promulgated as the nation's first full statute on personal data. Under Article 44, data subjects may oppose any decision made wholly by automated processing or profiling, whatever its effect, so these automated-decision rules reach further than the GDPR. A new regulator, the Personal Data Protection Authority, supervises compliance; controllers' 18-month adjustment period ended 23 June 2026.","date":"2024-12-23","source":"https://ailawradar.com/jurisdictions/cameroon"}]}