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In the forested hills near Djoum lies Nkout, a small town with one of Africa’s biggest untapped treasures: 2.7 billion tons of high-grade iron ore. On paper, the deposit could change Cameroon’s economic destiny. In reality, it has become the center of a courtroom fight thousands of kilometers away in London, where two unlikely claimants are locked in battle — Libya’s central bank and one of Cameroon’s oldest business dynasties, the Mukete family.
A national asset, tied up abroad
The Nkout deposit was once hailed as the project that could propel Cameroon into the ranks of the continent’s leading steel exporters. The Nkout deposit is worth staggering sums — roughly 135 trillion CFA francs ($239 billion) on paper, and far more if converted into steel. Instead of fueling roads, schools, and industry, however, the resource has been dragged into a tangled international fight.
At the heart of the fight is International Mining and Infrastructure Corporation (IMIC), a London-based junior mining firm that originally held the Nkout license. IMIC borrowed heavily — about $400 million and CFAF 200 billion — with little mining track record to show. When the company collapsed under its debts, the creditors circled. Chief among them: Libya’s central bank, which lent hundreds of millions and is now asserting its right to seize Nkout as repayment.
The Muketes step in
Standing in their way is Caisse Capital Limited, an investment outfit tied to the Mukete family, whose patriarch, the late Victor Mukete, was Cameroon’s oldest senator and one of its wealthiest men. His descendants have diversified interests in telecoms, real estate, and now mining finance.
Caisse Capital argues that it invested $5 million (CFAF 2.4 billion) into IMIC and therefore holds a legitimate claim to Nkout’s rights. In court filings, the firm insists that the Libyan bank should not be allowed to seize an asset of such national importance without Cameroonian input.
“This is more than a loan recovery case,” one person familiar with the Muketes’ position told reporters. “It is about who gets to control a strategic resource that belongs to Cameroon’s future.”
Government silence raises eyebrows
Strikingly absent in the London proceedings is the Cameroonian government itself. While Nkout is technically national property, granted under mining licenses, the state has yet to intervene decisively in the legal wrangling. Critics argue this silence risks ceding control of one of Cameroon’s most valuable resources to foreign creditors, with little guarantee of local benefit.
Christian Ntimbane Bomo, a Cameroonian politician, has denounced the Nkout saga as another example of Africa’s wealth being sold off by short-sighted elites. “Junior mining firms sign agreements only to pad their balance sheets, raise cash, and vanish,” he said, calling for the government to revoke the IMIC permit outright.
Billions at stake
The numbers involved are staggering. If Nkout’s 2.7 billion tons of ore were processed domestically into steel, experts estimate the revenues could exceed 1,350 trillion CFA francs. That figure dwarfs Cameroon’s annual GDP and could reshape its standing in Africa’s economy.
Years of murky financing, poor oversight, and questionable deals have left the project bogged down in foreign courts. For the Mukete family—long a fixture in Cameroon’s business and political circles—the dispute has become more than just a commercial tussle. It is just as much a test of their ability to defend a vital national asset while the battle plays out far beyond Cameroon’s borders.
A family legacy tested
For decades, the Mukete family has been a force in Cameroon. The late Victor Mukete, who lived to 103 before his death in 2021, stood out as a dominant figure in both politics and commerce. Today, his children and grandchildren are the ones steering that legacy, working in an economy where local influence constantly intersects with foreign money. One of its most prominent members, Colin Mukete, runs a conglomerate present in media, mining and real estate. He was also formerly the Chairman of the board of MTN Cameroon and is one of the largest shareholders in the company.
Their bid to secure Nkout through Caisse Capital is viewed by many as an attempt to keep one of Cameroon’s most valuable assets from sliding into outside control. To others, it is a high-stakes gamble in a sector notorious for risk, where court battles and creditor claims can tie up assets for decades.
What comes next
The London court is expected to rule later this year on competing claims between the Libyan bank and Caisse Capital. Regardless of the outcome, the Nkout saga has already exposed deep vulnerabilities in Cameroon’s resource governance.
For now, the richest iron ore deposit in the country — enough to power steel mills for generations — remains untouched. And the question of who ultimately controls it has less to do with geology than with lawyers in London and financiers in Yaoundé.
