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Cameroon's Supreme Court has taken the legal fight between Cameroonian billionaire Baba Ahmadou Danpullo's Bestinver group and MTN Cameroon Ltd. out of the courts in Douala, the country's commercial capital, and sent it to judges in the South region.
The court's united chambers granted the requests to transfer the cases in a ruling dated Oct. 28, numbered 01/FCR. An extract of the decision was issued on Nov. 5. Pending cases before the Wouri High Court will move to the Ntem High Court, while those before the Littoral Court of Appeal will go to the Court of Appeal of the South region. The costs were split between the parties.
MTN Cameroon and Bestinver Cameroun SA were both heard in the transfer proceeding. Lawyers for the two sides concurred with the report presented by the reporting judge, Roger Sockeng, as did the prosecutor.
The extract does not give the court's reasons for removing the cases from the Littoral appeal court. The ruling also does not settle the dispute itself. It does not decide whether MTN Cameroon owes money to Bestinver, or what happens to funds that were frozen during the dispute.
A four-year dispute
The case has its roots in South Africa. Real estate companies linked to Danpullo fell out with their lender, FirstRand Ltd.'s First National Bank, which moved against several of his South African properties over a loan. Danpullo has said FNB liquidated R4 billion ($241 million) of his assets to recover R520 million ($31.3 million).
Danpullo then brought proceedings in Cameroon against several companies, including MTN Cameroon, the local unit of Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd. In September 2022, Bestinver companies obtained orders seizing MTN Cameroon's bank accounts, which held about 14 billion CFA francs ($23.9 million). MTN has consistently denied that it owes Bestinver any debt.
On Feb. 24, 2025, the Littoral Court of Appeal in Douala ordered the seizures lifted, ruling that the Bestinver companies were not entitled to them. MTN announced the decision on March 31, 2025. A lawyer for Danpullo said at the time that another attempt to seize the assets would be made.
The fight then spread to the banks. In October 2025, Cameroon's Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations sought about 126 billion CFA francs ($215 million) held in escrow at Afriland First Bank, most of it about 120 billion CFA francs in MTN's mobile money pool account. The agency suspended enforcement against the mobile money account in December 2025.
Since April 2025, the Supreme Court had put several proceedings involving Bestinver, MTN Cameroon, Chococam and Broadband Telecom on hold while it weighed whether to move them. The Oct. 28 ruling ends that wait and sends the pending cases south.
Money still tied up
MTN Group's accounts show how the sums at stake have shrunk. The group reported 67 million rand ($4 million) in restricted cash tied to garnishee orders in court cases at the end of December 2025, down from 141 million rand ($8.5 million) a year earlier and 471 million rand ($28.4 million) at the end of 2023. MTN does not name the cases or the creditors in its filings.
Danpullo built his fortune in property, telecommunications and cattle ranching. Besides his holdings in Cameroon and South Africa, he co-owns Nexttel, Cameroon's third mobile operator, with Vietnam's Viettel Group, a partnership that has produced its own dispute.
Figures were converted at CFA586 and R16.6 to the dollar.
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