Up until 2015, Cameroon was mostly ignored by major international supermarket retailers; as it lacks the scale of Nigeria and DRC or the accessibility of Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire or Senegal it has attracted little interest. Yet this is changing, in spite of the collapse in oil prices, which has caused a downturn in the economy.
Research and Markets has announced the addition of "The Future of the Grocery Retail Market in Cameroon" report to their offering.
Their forecasts for growth in Cameroon from 2017 are quite positive. Through to 2020 grocery spend will grow to levels that will support a much larger modern grocery retailing landscape.
A number of international retailers have stated an interest in entering Cameroon. The next five years will have a huge impact because of the lack of promising domestic acquisition candidates for investors that are late to market. They expect to see competition levels rise dramatically in Douala and Yaoundé, and also the first signs of accelerated modernization of grocery retail in secondary cities.