[ACCI–CAVIE] In response to the accelerating shift in geostrategic dynamics, Cameroon is actively strengthening its national competitive intelligence infrastructure. As part of this effort, the African Centre for Competitive Intelligence (ACCI) delivered an intensive certification training programme from 30 June to 04 July 2025 in Yaoundé, for the benefit of 50 senior officers and agents from the military, police and civilian branches of the Directorate General of External Research (DGRE). The initiative was mandated at the highest level of the State.
To lead this mission, the Cameroonian government turned to a proven African expert: Dr Guy Gweth, President of the ACCI and author of Puissance 237. His appointment as lead instructor for the DGRE’s competitive intelligence capacity-building reflects Yaoundé’s determination to draw on endogenous expertise to safeguard and promote its vital interests.
Broadening the Threat Landscape
Historically focused on political and security monitoring, the DGRE is now expanding its operational mandate to include economic conflict. Disinformation, influence operations, unfair competition targeting strategic assets, data exfiltration and regulatory encirclement are now recognised as emerging vectors of threat.
“The Directorate General of External Research, as a sovereign intelligence agency, must remain at the forefront of this evolution. Our traditional mission of monitoring and anticipation must now fully integrate a competitive intelligence dimension focused on protecting the nation’s strategic interests,” declared the Director General of the DGRE at the opening of the session on 30 June 2025 in Yaoundé.
Intensive, structured, and enriched by real-world experience, the programme enabled participants to deconstruct asymmetric economic offensives, assess their practical impact on Africa and Cameroon, and build effective response capabilities. A key focus was the development of a national competitive intelligence doctrine, a coherent national strategy, aligned public policy, and a rigorous operational action plan.
Trainees were also equipped to implement 360° strategic monitoring, understand the functioning of a state-run competitive intelligence system tailored to Cameroonian realities, and produce high-value analytical deliverables designed for decision-makers at the highest level. All activities were developed in synergy with local realities and the imperatives of a strategically minded state.
ACCI–CAVIE: A Decade of Continental Impact
The DGRE’s choice of Dr Guy Gweth as strategic partner is no coincidence. As President of the ACCI, he stands as one of Africa’s foremost thought leaders in strategic affairs. For over 15 years, he has advised governments, institutions and leading private-sector actors on geostrategy, economic sovereignty and due diligence.
This collaboration comes as the ACCI prepares to mark its 10th anniversary on 03 August 2025. Over the past decade, the Centre has trained over a thousand senior public officials and private-sector executives across the continent, and supported strategic entities such as the Presidencies of Côte d’Ivoire and Togo, the foreign ministries of Tunisia and Benin, as well as leading African financial institutions including the BGFI Group.
Ultimately, the partnership between the DGRE and the ACCI goes far beyond a single training session. It represents a strategic shift for Cameroon — and by extension, for Africa. It demonstrates the ACCI’S proven ability to equip African intelligence and security services with cutting-edge expertise in competitive and strategic intelligence, fully aligned with their operational realities.
In the face of increasingly complex, asymmetric and interconnected global economic, financial and trade challenges, the ACCI emerges as an indispensable partner to help African states defend their sovereignty and secure their strategic interests.
The Editorial Team