Rebecca Enonchong, a Cameroonian entrepreneur who became the first African woman named vice-president of the International Chamber of Commerce, is facing escalating legal and tax pressure in her home country — pressure she says is retaliation for her outspoken criticism of President Paul Biya's regime.
The appointment in June 2026 marked a historic breakthrough for African women in global business leadership. But within weeks, Cameroonian tax authorities sealed Enonchong's offices over an alleged unpaid debt equivalent to 11,000 euros — a sum she firmly denies owing. Her defence team describes the case as politically motivated, part of a pattern of harassment targeting a woman who won't stay silent about corruption and authoritarian rule.
A Pioneer Under Pressure
Born in Yaoundé 59 years ago, Enonchong has spent decades building Africa's tech ecosystem from the ground up. She founded AppsTech 27 years ago, offering companies help managing complex Oracle database systems. The firm quickly won major contracts across energy, industry, and telecommunications, opening subsidiaries in France and then in Douala, Cameroon's economic capital, 24 years ago.
But doing business in Cameroon hasn't been straightforward. Since 2004 — 22 years ago — AppsTech has been chasing unpaid fees from a major contract with telecoms giant MTN. Despite a court ruling in her favour, the payment has never materialised, pushing the company's accounts into the red. Enonchong said: "The business environment is very hostile in Cameroon, especially for someone like me who freely expresses her opinions."
A human rights and democracy activist, she's been critical of Biya's handling of the anglophone conflict in the region she comes from, and of what she calls an "immobility" that "kills the country's economy." Five years ago, in 2021, she was arrested for contempt of court and held in custody for three days. Her lawyers said the charges were fabricated. Last year, she backed opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary in the 2025 presidential election.
Building Networks, Not Just Companies
Enonchong's influence extends far beyond her own firm. Sixteen years ago, in 2010, she co-founded Afrilabs, a pan-African network supporting tech entrepreneurs that now connects 500 incubators across 53 countries and a community of more than 2 million people. She also created the Cameroun Angels Network, which provides financial backing to entrepreneurial talent at home, and the Africa Technology Forum, bringing together diaspora talent to promote digital development across the continent.
She said: "The development of these incubators is an enormous source of pride for me. 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."
Her path to tech leadership began in an intellectual household. Her father, from Cameroon's anglophone southwest, was a renowned lawyer and founder of the Cameroon Bar Association. Her American mother, from Florida, instilled a love of culture and travel. By 15, Enonchong had visited about 20 countries. As a teenager in the United States, she discovered computing in the 1980s while working hospitality jobs to pay her way through university. She said: "I worked in hospitality, where we had access to machines to make invoices. It became a passion. I loved, for example, taking computers apart, adding my hard drive, putting in more memory... I wasn't one of the cool people. I was really a geek, a nerd as they said at the time, passionate about computers and the idea of Internet even though we only had a very vague idea of what it would become."
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 Oracle.
'They Want to Send Me a Message'
The recent tax case came just weeks after her appointment to the International Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest private business organisation. Enonchong said: "This attack is aimed at discrediting me. They want to send me a message: don't try to work outside the system." She manages multiple roles — business leader, founder, investor, board member — across 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."
Despite the pressure, she's defiant. She said: "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."
Why This Matters:
Enonchong's case illustrates a pattern faced by African entrepreneurs who challenge entrenched power: success abroad can make you a target at home. Her harassment comes at a moment when African tech is finally gaining global recognition — but when the infrastructure to support it remains fragile, dependent on governments that often see independent voices as threats rather than assets. The contrast between her international appointment and the petty harassment over an 11,000-euro debt reveals how far Africa's business environment still has to go. For women entrepreneurs on the continent, the message is chilling: break the glass ceiling, and they'll come for you at home. Yet Enonchong's refusal to be silenced, and her continued investment in the next generation of African talent, offers a counter-narrative — one where resilience, not fear, defines the future of African innovation.