Rebecca Enonchong, a Cameroonian tech entrepreneur appointed vice-president of the International Chamber of Commerce in June 2026, has been targeted by tax authorities in her home country weeks after taking the global business role. The issue concerns 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.
Enonchong, born in 1967 in Yaoundé, is the first woman from Africa to hold that level of responsibility in the world's largest private business organisation. But her appointment came as she continued to face legal and tax pressure in Cameroon, where she says she's been targeted for her criticism of the regime of Paul Biya. She said: "This attack is aimed at discrediting me. They want to send me a message: don't try to work outside the system."
Business Environment and Unpaid Contracts
Enonchong's return to Cameroon hasn't been easy. Since 2004, 22 years ago, her company AppsTech has been chasing fees from a major contract signed with telecoms giant MTN. The situation pushed AppsTech's accounts into the red. Despite a court decision in her favour, the payment still hasn't been made.
She 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 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."
In 2021, 5 years ago, 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, the activist entrepreneur, who backed opposition figure Issa Tchiroma Bakary in the 2025 presidential election 1 year ago, has also been in the sights of the Cameroonian tax authorities.
From Tech Pioneer to Global Business Leader
Enonchong is described as a pioneer of tech in Africa and as an entrepreneur with multiple roles. She's 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."
She grew up in a very intellectual environment. Her father, from the anglophone southwest, was a renowned lawyer and founder of the Cameroon Bar Association. Her mother, an American from Florida, loved culture and travel. Enonchong said: "At 15, I had already visited about 20 countries."
As a teenager, she went to the United States to study, where she discovered American student life, community work and odd jobs. Alongside her economics studies, she became passionate about computing in the 1980s. 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... At that time, I already had several hats: I was very involved in class life and in many clubs. But 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 later at Oracle, the database management company used by large companies and governments.
Building AppsTech and African Networks
In 1999, 27 years ago, 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 new subsidiaries in France and then in Cameroon in 2002, 24 years ago, in Douala, the economic capital.
Back home, she promoted digital development in Africa 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, 16 years ago, 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's since helped create other networks, including Cameroun Angels Network, which supports entrepreneurial talent financially in her country.
Enonchong 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."
She said: "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."
Why This Matters:
Enonchong's case illustrates the regulatory and legal obstacles that entrepreneurs face in countries where governance and rule of law remain weak. Her company has waited 22 years for payment on a contract settled in her favour by the courts — a reminder that without enforceable property rights and contract law, private enterprise can't flourish. The timing of the tax pressure, coming weeks after her appointment to a major international role, raises questions about the independence of tax enforcement from political considerations. For African economies to compete globally, they need business environments where entrepreneurs aren't punished for political speech and where courts' decisions are honoured. Enonchong's resilience and her networks supporting 500 incubators across 53 countries show what's possible when talent meets opportunity — but also what's lost when governments treat successful entrepreneurs as threats rather than assets.