Rebecca Enonchong, a Cameroonian entrepreneur born in 1967 in Yaoundé, has been named vice-president of the International Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest private business organisation, even as she says Cameroon’s authorities keep her under legal and tax pressure for criticising the regime of Paul Biya.
Power at the Top, Pressure at Home
The appointment puts a woman from Africa in a first-of-its-kind role at that level of responsibility inside the ICC. Nice symbolism for the business class. But the same week, or close enough to make the contrast sting, Enonchong says she is still facing the kind of state attention that arrives with court files, tax claims and sealed offices. In Cameroon, she says, the message is simple: don’t step outside the line drawn by power.
Enonchong has built a career that moves easily through the polished rooms of global commerce. She is described as a pioneer of tech in Africa, a business leader, founder of networks, investor, vice-president and board member of several organisations in digital technology, commerce and health. She said: “When you’re very orderly and organised, you can do a lot of things. The secret is to know your teams perfectly and know how to delegate. And for my part, I’m very well surrounded.” The line sounds like the language of management, because that’s what it is. The system loves a self-made figure when she can be folded into the machinery.
Her path ran through elite institutions and corporate infrastructure. She graduated in international relations and economics at the Catholic University of America in Washington, then specialised in financial technology at the Inter-American Development Bank and later at Oracle, the database management company used by large companies and governments. In 1999, she launched AppsTech, a company offering large groups help managing their Oracle systems. She said: “That system was very complicated and segmented, it needed an expert for each area. We had the idea of offering complete assistance to make life easier for companies.” The company quickly won major contracts in energy, industry, the public sector and telecommunications, and opened subsidiaries in France and then in Cameroon in 2002, in Douala, the economic capital.
Business, State, and the Same Old Gatekeepers
Back home, the story turns rough. Since 2004, her company has been chasing fees from a major contract signed with telecoms giant MTN. AppsTech’s accounts went into the red. A court ruled in her favour, but the payment still hasn’t been made. That’s the kind of “business environment” that gets sold as normal: contracts, courts, delays, and the quiet power of those who can simply refuse to pay.
Enonchong said: “The business environment is very hostile in Cameroon, especially for someone like me who freely expresses her opinions.” She has been critical of the regime of Paul Biya, of the handling of the anglophone conflict from which she comes, and of business management, denouncing an “immobility” that “kills the country’s economy.” The language is hers, not the state’s. It lands harder because it comes from someone who has spent years inside the very networks that claim to modernise the continent.
In 2021, she was arrested for contempt of court and held in custody for three days. Her defence said the case was political and fabricated. For several weeks, she has also been in the sights of the Cameroonian tax authorities over an unpaid amount attributed to her company, equivalent to 11,000 euros, which led to her offices being sealed. She firmly denies having incurred the debt. The state doesn’t need to shout when it can seal a door and let the paperwork do the work.
Networks, Incubators, and the Limits of the System
Enonchong has also spent years building tech networks across Africa. She promoted digital development through Africa Technology Forum, which brings together talent from the African diaspora. In Cameroon, she created a centre dedicated to innovation and then, with a handful of partners, launched Afrilabs in 2010, a pan-African network aimed at supporting tech entrepreneurs that now brings together 500 incubators in 53 countries and a community of more than 2 million people. She has since helped create other networks, including Cameroun Angels Network, which supports entrepreneurial talent financially in her country.
She said: “The development of these incubators is an enormous source of pride for me.” She added: “I’m constantly impressed by the quality of the engineers and entrepreneurs on the continent who sometimes operate in difficult contexts and show a lot of resilience.” The words point to real energy and real work, but they also sit inside a system where access to capital, contracts and state permission still decides who gets to scale and who gets crushed.
Those legal troubles came weeks after her appointment as vice-president of the International Chamber of Commerce. She said: “This attack is aimed at discrediting me. They want to send me a message: don’t try to work outside the system.” She added: “But I won’t give in. Cameroon is a very beautiful country, with enormous potential and it belongs to all of us. I will continue to fight and invest for the next generation.” The line about belonging lands differently when the state is sealing offices and the business elite is handing out titles. One side calls it order. The other side calls it pressure. Ordinary people usually just call it life under power.