The CNPS, Cameroon's social security fund for employees

Status and history

According to the CNPS, Cameroon's social protection dates back to the colonial period: a decree of 17 November 1937 first required employers to compensate work accidents, and an ordinance of 6 December 1945 set up a family benefits equalisation fund in Douala, initially only for French and assimilated workers. The overseas Labour Code of 15 December 1952 extended these benefits to all workers, and Law No. 59/25 of 11 April 1959 reorganised the fund.

The CNPS is a public body with legal personality and financial autonomy, supervised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. It is run by a tripartite board (employers, workers, the state) and managed by a director general. Its field network comprises four regional directorates and 37 social insurance centres: 14 for the Centre, South and East, 12 for the Littoral and South-West, 6 for the West and North-West, and 5 for Adamawa, the North and the Far North. It also runs medical and social centres and the Essos Hospital Centre in Yaoundé.

The three branches and contribution rates

The CNPS runs three branches: family benefits; old-age, invalidity and survivors' pension insurance (known as PVID); and work accidents and occupational diseases. Rates are set by Decree No. 2016/072 of 15 February 2016, which replaced a 1990 schedule. According to Camer.be (2017), the decree raised the employee share of pension contributions from 2.8% to 4.2% and lifted the ceiling from 300,000 to 750,000 CFA francs a month. The employer calculates, withholds and pays the whole amount, including the employee's share.

In practice, on a gross salary of 750,000 CFA francs or more, the employee pays at most 31,500 CFA francs a month to the CNPS (4.2% of the ceiling). The minimum basis is the minimum wage. Some work expenses are excluded from the base: an interministerial order of 1 March 1974 lists nine of them, including travel and entertainment allowances and the transport bonus. How deductions appear on a payslip is covered in the payslip guide.

Registration, declarations and payment

Every employer, including a private individual employing domestic staff, must register with the CNPS, which assigns a registration number. Pre-registration can be done online but must be confirmed at a social insurance centre within 30 days. Each employee must then be registered within 8 days of being hired; they keep the same number for their whole career, whatever the employer.

The system is self-declared. Each month (or each quarter for some employers), the employer files an online declaration on cnps.cm listing employees, days worked and pay, either by typing the data or by uploading a file produced by payroll software (the “magnetic DIPE”). The receipt serves as the assessment notice, and contributions must then be paid, by the 15th of the following month at the latest, at a bank or approved institution. An employee working for two employers is declared by each of them.

Employees can check for themselves that they are declared: the “member area” of the CNPS website gives access to their individual account with a personal code. If the employer refuses to register them, the CNPS says workers can apply for registration themselves or report the employer, by letter or on the website, with confidentiality guaranteed; sworn inspectors automatically register any undeclared employees they find.

Penalties for failing to declare

• Assessment by default: an employer who does not declare pay, cannot produce usable accounts or refuses an inspection has contributions fixed on a flat-rate basis (Articles 39 and 40 of Decree No. 2015/2517/PM).
• Formal notice: the employer has 7 days to put things right, after which enforced collection begins under the rules of the General Tax Code.
• Late-payment surcharges: 10% for late payment, plus 3% per quarter or part of a quarter beyond three months after the due date.
• Closure of the business: a suspension measure carried out by the tax authorities and CNPS enforcement officers.
• Criminal penalties: 3 months to 2 years in prison and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 CFA francs, or either penalty, for an employer who organises a refusal to declare or pay. CNPS claims rank alongside those of the Treasury.

Family allowances and maternity

Family allowances are paid to employees who work at least 18 days or 120 hours in the month, and to people receiving an old-age or survivor's pension. According to CLEISS, they are due for each dependent child under 14, under 18 if an apprentice and under 21 if in education or disabled; the CNPS asks for a proof-of-life certificate for children under 6 and a school certificate beyond that age. The amount, long set at 2,800 CFA francs per child per month, was raised to 4,500 CFA francs by Presidential Decree No. 2024/057 of 21 February 2024, issued after a rise in fuel prices; the increase applies to allowances paid by the CNPS as well as by the Finance Ministry (Koaci, Sikafinance). Allowances are paid quarterly according to the SSA (2019).

Rights are lost if not claimed in time: according to the CNPS, the limitation period is one year for family, prenatal and maternity allowances, 3 years for occupational risks and 5 years for pensions. A complete family benefits file must be processed within 30 minutes, under a CNPS service note of 20 April 2016. Voluntary members are not entitled to family allowances.

Work accidents and occupational diseases

The occupational risks branch, governed by the 1977 law, covers employees from their first day at work, with no minimum contribution period, as well as apprentices and technical-school students according to the SSA. It is funded by the employer alone. Care (medical and surgical treatment, hospital stays, prostheses, rehabilitation, transport) is covered, and benefits replace lost earnings.

Voluntary insurance: self-employed and informal workers

Created by a Prime Minister's decree of 13 August 2014 and opened on 1 December 2014, voluntary insurance allows people who are not employees to contribute towards a pension. The CNPS lists craftsmen, taxi drivers, motorbike-taxi riders, hairdressers, traders, market women (bayam-sellam), photographers and cobblers, as well as professionals such as lawyers, private doctors, engineers and notaries. It also covers former employees who have not reached 180 months of contributions and want to complete their record. It covers only the old-age, invalidity and survivors' pension branch.

To join, you need a CNPS registration form, certified copies of your birth certificate and ID card, a location map and proof of income (or a sworn statement). Former employees add a work certificate and a statement that they receive no pension. Registration can start online. In terms of numbers, the press reported about 85,000 voluntary members in 2015, 140,000 in 2016 and 152,000 by mid-2017, only half of whom actually paid (Camer.be, 2017); the CNPS had 134,883 active voluntary members in 2018 (Camer.be, 2019).

For the diaspora, the CNPS publishes no specific rule: its pages describe voluntary insurance for people working in Cameroon and do not say whether a Cameroonian living abroad can join. For employees who have worked in both France and Cameroon, the Franco-Cameroonian general social security convention of 5 November 1990, in force since 1 March 1992, allows insurance periods in both countries to be added together and pensions to be paid abroad (CLEISS).

Key figures

In the first quarter of 2026 the CNPS paid 32.6 billion CFA francs in pensions to 119,407 recipients (up from 115,268 a year earlier) and 5.1 billion in family allowances to 84,400 recipients (Journal du Cameroun). The number of insured persons declared online (751,384 in 2025) should not be confused with other counts: according to the CNPS as quoted by Camer.be (2019), the mandatory scheme had 780,745 active insured persons in 2018, 73% of them under 35, and the voluntary scheme 134,883. EcoMatin also notes that 2025 contributions fell well short of the 480.7 billion CFA franc target.

Universal health coverage: where does it stand?

The CNPS does not run general health insurance: according to the SSA (2019), employees' routine healthcare is the employer's responsibility under the Labour Code. Universal health coverage (couverture santé universelle, CSU) is a separate programme led by the Ministry of Public Health. Its first phase was launched on 12 April 2023 in Mandjou, in the East region, at an announced cost of 95 billion CFA francs, shared roughly equally between the state and its partners (Journal du Cameroun). It targets pregnant women and children under 5 first: a health voucher for pregnancy and childbirth, childhood malaria, HIV, tuberculosis and dialysis.

Three years on, EcoMatin puts the funds mobilised since 2023 at 318 billion CFA francs and the number of people enrolled at 3.9 million by the end of March 2025; phase I covered the Far North, Adamawa, North, South and East regions, and was extended in 2024 to the North-West and South-West. The paper notes that no law governs the CSU yet and that the services covered remain limited. Camer.be (April 2026) speaks of “mixed results”: incomplete enrolment, reimbursements to be speeded up, regional inequalities.

Frequently asked questions