[ACCI–CAVIE] In the wake of the 12 October presidential election, an exclusive interview in Le Messager with Dr Guy Gweth — President of the African Centre for Competitive Intelligence (ACCI) and a leading voice in African competitive intelligence — cast a stark light on Cameroon’s strategic challenges. The full interview can be downloaded at the end of this article.
Dr Gweth’s analysis, published in Le Messager, is entirely built around the strategic intelligence framework developed by the African Centre for Competitive Intelligence (ACCI) over the past decade. It calls for an urgent transition towards a strategic state capable of mastering global competition. The common thread of the interview is Power 237: For a Regional Power Strategy 2025–2050, a book that served as a benchmark for assessing the credibility of political ambitions.
The Urgency of Irreversible Planning: The Power 237 Framework
Asked what clear mandate he expects from the future president to bring the vision of regional power to life, Dr Gweth outlined the Power 237 roadmap, structured into three phases. The Foundational Phase (2026–2033) focusing on institutional consolidation, massive investment in human capital, and economic diversification. It will be followed by the Deployment Phase (2034–2042), centred on innovation, regional integration, and active diplomacy, before reaching the Radiance Phase (2043–2050). To finance this ambition, ten sources have been identified — ranging from tax optimisation to diaspora mobilisation. Progress will be measured pragmatically through clear indicators such as the doubling of GDP per capita, a significant rise in the Human Development Index (HDI), and achieving 40transcending % of electricity generation from renewable energy. Faced with the short length of presidential terms, the survival of this strategy, he argues, depends on institutionalising an independent long-term vision that uses the political cycle as an operational lever — thus electoral dynamics.
The Power Triptych: Hard, Soft, and Smart Power
Dr Gweth expressed regret that the presidential candidates did not sufficiently integrate the power triptych — Hard Power (military strength, industry, and strategic infrastructure such as the Port of Kribi), Soft Power (cultural and academic influence, media), and Smart Power (the agile and intelligent combination of the two). Integrating these concepts, he said, was essential to the credibility of any ambition to elevate Cameroon to the rank of an African power. Smart Power, for example, required concrete commitments to an assertive economic diplomacy, transforming embassies into tools for promoting trade and investment.
Competitive Intelligence: The Missing Link in Electoral Programmes
The core of the interview focused on the integration of competitive intelligence (CI), defined by the ACCI as “a mindset, a system, and a coordinated process of gathering and analysing useful intelligence for decision-making in a competitive environment.” Dr Gweth’s assessment is unequivocal: competitive intelligence was absent in both explicit and systemic terms from the candidates’ programmes. While some programmes touched on CI-related objectives — such as industrialisation (Cabral Libii, Pierre Kwemo), monetary sovereignty (Ateki Seta Caxton, Jacques Bouhga Hagbe, Hiram Samuel Iyodi), or auditing public finances (Akere Muna) — none proposed a coherent system or process to support these aims. Dr Gweth further noted that even initiatives related to industrial protection — such as Hiram Samuel Iyodi’s call to ban the export of raw materials, or Paul Biya’s emphasis on security — require anticipatory and economic warfare capabilities, which the candidates failed to elaborate on. He concluded that the debate lacked the proactive strategic intelligence necessary for regional power building.
Digital Sovereignty and Strategic Priority
Turning to digital sovereignty, Dr Gweth insisted on the need to institutionalise defensive competitive intelligence. Digital sovereignty, he explained, is not merely a matter of regulation but a core component of Hard Power that demands the strategic transformation of intelligence services. He cited, for example, the work he carried out with Cameroon’s General Directorate for External Research (DGRE), training senior officials in economic warfare. According to Dr Gweth, the future president must make it an absolute priority to establish a strategic steering body directly attached to the Presidency — a genuine “strategic brain” empowered to transform intelligence into swift political action. As a first international mission, he recommended reactivating a strategic partnership with Nigeria. This choice, far from being merely diplomatic, responds to a Smart Power imperative: on one hand, reinforcing security through Hard Power against the Boko Haram threat; on the other, boosting geo-economic cooperation by securing Cameroon’s access to Nigeria’s 230-million-strong market — thereby maximising the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
In conclusion, Dr Gweth’s advice to the future president is threefold: mobilise the elite both at home and in the diaspora; bridge internal divisions through a new social contract centred on a strategic state; and create an independent holistic intelligence bureau to ensure anticipatory capability and a proactive economic warfare posture. The president’s first decisive act, he concludes, should be to awaken the lion that lies within every Cameroonian and reconcile it with the Nation, making this renewed unity the cornerstone of Cameroon’s power.
📄 Download the full interview HERE.
The Editorial Team