Why was I interested in interviewing Jacques Martin? He is a Cameroonian entrepreneur, business strategist, and political figure who serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Circle of Business Developers of Africa (CBDA), an organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship, investment, and economic integration across the African continent. With a background in international trade, management, and business development, he has built his career at the intersection of private enterprise, economic diplomacy, and institutional development. His work focuses on strengthening African business ecosystems, facilitating strategic partnerships, and advancing initiatives aligned with the African Union’s Agenda 2063. In recent years, he has also emerged as a vocal advocate for governance reform, economic sovereignty, and a more self-reliant model of African development. Jacques Martin has publicly declared his intention to run for the Presidency of Cameroon in 2032, positioning himself as part of a new generation of leaders seeking to reshape the country’s political and economic future.

This interview offers an unusually candid and comprehensive look into the worldview of a contemporary African business leader whose ambitions extend beyond entrepreneurship into questions of national leadership, economic transformation, and public governance. Moving between personal experiences, spiritual convictions, business strategy, and political aspirations, Jacques Martin presents a vision of Africa rooted in sovereignty, industrial development, and institutional reform. Particularly noteworthy is his argument that economic development, ethical leadership, and national independence are inseparable goals. As a declared candidate for the Cameroonian presidency in 2032, his reflections provide insight not only into his business philosophy but also into the ideas and principles he hopes to bring to public office. Whether readers agree with his perspectives or not, the conversation offers a valuable window into the aspirations, debates, and competing visions shaping the future of leadership in Africa.

Here’s our exchange:

Where are you originally from, and what aspects of your childhood there most shaped who you are today?

I am originally from Douala, the economic heartbeat and sociopolitical crossroads of Cameroon. Growing up in the center of this vibrant metropolis exposed me very early to power dynamics, trade flows, and the glaring fractures of our socio-communal model. It was in Douala that I experienced a defining shock: in the third grade, within a Catholic institution, I was subjected to a collective corporal punishment of unprecedented violence for a chatter of which I was not the author. This first encounter with institutional arbitrariness awakened my conscience. Shortly after, my father’s professional relocation brought our family to Limbe, a coastal city in the Anglophone region.

This transition from an injustice suffered in Douala to a cultural and linguistic immersion in Limbe forged the foundations of my character. There, I developed a holy horror of arbitrariness, a fine mastery of our national duality, and a deep resilience in the face of major transitions. It is at this precise intersection that my vocation to redress what is unjust was born a driving force that dictates my public governance today and structures my doctrine of social justice for Cameroon.

How would you describe your family environment growing up, and who were the most influential figures in your early life?

My family environment was protective, rigorous, and anchored in the fundamental values of dignity, responsibility, and the virtue of work. My father was a central figure of stability and openness. However, my true trajectory was drawn in the inviolable space of my inner life. Since birth, I grew up with the permanent sense of having always walked in the presence of God. The evil, systemic malice, and ambient corruption around me violently reminded me that where my soul originated, these deviations had no right of citizenship.

In an environment that indulged in compromise, my inability to integrate into networks of alienation was absolute. I hid cleverly to survive socially, but this profound misalignment pushed me to face major existential crises, leading me to be suicidal on numerous occasions. Finding no answers in traditional educational structures, I plunged into the rigorous study of occult teachings at the age of 14, seeking in a quasi-scientific way to decode the laws of the universe and reconnect with the Divine.

Were there particular family or cultural traditions that played a lasting role in shaping your values or worldview?

More than local folklore or traditions, it was my long and intense quest for metaphysical truth that configured my geopolitical reading of the world. My youth was a long march through what I describe as ” spiritual prostitution “. In my desperate search for absolute answers, I climbed the ladders of occultism until I formally joined a mystical lodge at the age of 22. I believed then that I had found the keys of knowledge and freedom. Yet, this immersion left nothing but a sterile void in my soul.

The true historical turning point of my destiny occurred in 2023: Christ revealed Himself to me in the radical and absolute way that I knew, in the depths of my being, He had to Be. This encounter completely metamorphosed me. Occultism promises power through secrecy, enslavement, and dependency; Christ gave me authority through Truth and deliverance. This liberation dictates the absolute integrity of my posture today: international observers and strategic partners must understand that one cannot pretend to lead the economic destiny of a continent or run for the supreme office of a State like Cameroon if one is a slave to secret pacts or dark networks of influence. My only tradition is divine justice, and it is the ultimate guarantee of my moral immunity.

What initially drew you to the field you chose to study, and was there a moment when you realized it was the right path for you?

The call of high economic strategy manifested itself as early as the 6th grade. I did not perceive business owners as mere merchants, but as the true architects of the city, capable of laying the infrastructure for co-development and changing the course of economic history. To give a technical framework to this vision, I completed a HND in International Trade in École Supérieure de Gestion (Douala, Cameroon) , before pursuing an elite relocated curriculum with the Institut Montpellier Management (MOMA) in France, where I obtained my Bachelor’s and then my Master’s degree in Management and Business Development with Honors (Mention Bien) and an average of 15/20.

The click occurred at the university: while my peers followed conventional internship tracks, my research papers and theses focused exclusively on the operational deployment of my own corporate structures. I understood very early on that macro-economic theory was only valuable if it was immediately converted into field engineering and measurable value creation.

At what age did you begin working, and what did your first job teach you about responsibility or independence?

I structured and launched my first economic initiatives during my second year of university, I was 20 years old. These were financial failures, but masterclasses in learning. I am a pure self-taught man of the field; the school of reality was my incubator. I refined my expertise by operating as an independent Business Developer for various national and international structures and I founded my first official entity in 2020.

This warrior’s journey taught me a fundamental lesson in transitional leadership: the viability of a vision depends neither on public subsidies nor on the approval of established circles, but on divine favor, an iron discipline, and the rigorous capacity to impose performance standards on a market. It is this culture of absolute responsibility, stripped of any entitlement mentality, that I am preparing to introduce into the management of public affairs in Cameroon.

How would you describe your current professional role, and what aspects of it do you find most meaningful?

On December 31, 2022, I received divine inspiration to materialize a major economic intervention force for the continent: the Circle of Business Developers of Africa (CBDA), launched on January 1, 2023. As Chairman of the Board of Directors, I today lead an elite institution with a meteoric international trajectory, accredited to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and recognized by UN-OSAA.

This macro-strategic position allows me to interact directly with governments, ministries, and global institutions, while piloting high-level partnerships, such as our diplomatic cooperation framework with the International Parliament for Safety and Peace (IPSP-WOS). What gives deep meaning to my action is our ability to translate the African Union’s Agenda 2063 into concrete, sovereign industrial and commercial realities, proving that modern and high-performing African governance is entirely possible.

How do you define ethical business leadership in a continent where economic development is often shaped by the competing influence of foreign powers, political instability, and structural inequality?

As Chairman of the CBDA and a candidate for the presidency, I define ethical leadership as an act of sovereignty and national security. In Africa, underdevelopment is not a budgetary fatality; it is the direct product of a moral failure among elites. Having explored and rejected the illusions of occult circles, I know that compromise weakens the State and surrenders our resources to foreign predation.

Ethical leadership consists of breaking clientelistic networks, eradicating nepotism, and enforcing radical transparency and international compliance as non-negotiable standards. It means sanctifying the public good and freeing private initiative from administrative extortion. Ethics is the absolute weapon to restore the confidence of serious investors and guarantee the sovereignty of our economic choices.

Africa is frequently described as a continent of enormous potential. Do you believe this narrative sometimes risks becoming a substitute for confronting the deeper systemic barriers that continue to limit inclusive development?

Absolutely, and it is time to put an end to this complacency. The exclusive narrative of ” infinite potential ” acts as an intellectual narcotic designed to mask our lack of organization. The global market and international high finance do not reward potential; they reward structure, value addition, and compliance with standards. As long as Africa accepts being reduced to a reserve of raw materials and a consumer counter, she will suffer the law of foreign powers.

As a leader, I refuse the politics of slogans. The historical challenge of our generation is the methodical, rigorous, and unyielding transition from potential to structural engineering. This is the discipline I apply at the CBDA and it is the industrial doctrine I will impose at the summit of the State: to transform locally, standardize our value chains, and lock our legal agreements to protect national wealth.

As Chairman of the Circle of Business Developers of Africa, how do you balance the pursuit of economic growth with the responsibility to ensure that development genuinely benefits local communities rather than only political and corporate elites?

Balance is not achieved through charity, but through the architecture of our contracts. At the CBDA, we have made a conceptual breakthrough by replacing simple business networking with a rigorous Strategic Facilitation model formalized by our Market Entry Service Menu. No international operator enters our market corridors without signing binding clauses on local content, decent job creation, and effective technology transfer.

Concurrently, through the CBDA Women’s Inner Circle, we connect grassroots women’s entrepreneurship directly to major capital flows. My vision for Cameroon and Africa is clear: economic growth must be the engine of social elevation, and not the instrument of enrichment for an oligarchy or transnational cartels.

Many African entrepreneurs continue to face limited access to financing, infrastructure, and international visibility. In your view, what is the single greatest obstacle preventing African businesses from scaling globally?

The major obstacle is not the lack of liquidity in global financial markets, but the deficit of institutional trust structures. Large investment funds and multilateral institutions speak a strict language of risk management and due diligence. The entrepreneurial genius of Cameroon and Africa is exceptional, but our SMEs suffer from a lack of legal support, transparent governance, and normative alignment.

The CBDA acts precisely as this institutional trusted third party, an elite gateway that brings our national champions up to global standards to make them eligible for global capital flows and enable them to scale up.

The language of “partnership” is often used in international investment discussions involving Africa. From your experience, how often are these relationships truly equitable?

Equity is not negotiated in weakness; it is imposed by the consistency of the file and the firmness of the political posture. My experience, from French studies to the African field, has proven to me that when you present yourself at the negotiating table in a state of psychological, technical, or budgetary dependence, the word “partnership” becomes the polite synonym for vassalization.

The CBDA has broken this complex. We design inflexible Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) based on a strict 50/50 approach. We only accept the presence of foreign investors if they align with the strategic priorities of our nations and respect our sovereignty. This same intransigence will guide Cameroon’s economic diplomacy under my presidency.

How do you respond to criticism that some forms of foreign investment in Africa continue patterns of dependency that resemble modern economic colonialism?

This is a lucid diagnosis. The extractivist model which consists of plundering raw resources, repatriating the entirety of the added value through tax optimization mechanisms, while leaving negative externalities and poverty to local populations is the exact replica of the colonial pact. Faced with this, my response as a future Head of State is clear: recreation is over.

We do not need to chase investors away; we need to change the law of the market. Access to Cameroon’s natural resources and public contracts will be irrevocably conditioned on local industrialization, patent sharing, and co-governance of infrastructure. Serious investors who respect international law will find a stable and predictable framework; predators will have to look for another continent.

Across the continent, young people are increasingly educated, connected, and ambitious, yet unemployment and underemployment remain widespread. What responsibilities do African business leaders have toward a generation that may feel excluded from economic opportunity?

Our responsibility is historical. We are facing a demographic time bomb that can either become the world’s greatest growth driver or the engine of major instability. Having carved my own path as a self-taught entrepreneur, I refuse to see our youth reduced to exile or despair. Our responsibility as leaders is not to create low-end salaried jobs to appease statistics, but to build the infrastructure of an economy of innovation and sovereignty.

We must shift our countries toward the knowledge economy, massively sponsor the startup ecosystem, adapt our academic curricula to the demands of the global market, and integrate youth into the sectors of the future: the sustainable blue economy, agritech, energy transition, and advanced technologies.

What has been the most difficult leadership decision of your career where commercial interests and personal values were in direct tension?

My most difficult decision, which I reiterate at every stage of my deployment, is the systematic refusal of colossal funding or major institutional alliances when these involve sacrificing my strategic independence or the ethics of my organization. In the sector of Strategic Facilitation and high-level consulting, offers of capital driven by political interference agendas or corruption circles are permanent.

But my spiritual alliance with Christ and my commitment to my people forbid me from making the slightest compromise. Saying “no” to easy money to preserve the purity of my vision is a sacrificial choice in the short term, but it is the non-negotiable condition for retaining the international credibility and moral authority necessary to lead a state transition and unify a nation.

African economies are often evaluated through growth statistics and investment figures. What dimensions of development do you believe global financial institutions still fail to measure adequately?

Global financial institutions remain trapped in an obsolete accounting orthodoxy centered on GDP. GDP is a blind indicator: it measures the speed of capital circulation but ignores its trajectory and human impact. It dramatically fails to evaluate the index of human dignity, the rate of food sovereignty, community resilience, and the quality of wealth redistribution.

A nation can display 7% growth driven by a foreign mining enclave without a single decent hospital or school being built for the population. True development is measured by the strategic autonomy of a people, their global security, and their capacity to master their destiny without depending on international aid.

In many countries, corruption remains one of the most significant barriers to sustainable economic development. How can business leaders promote integrity in environments where informal networks and political patronage are deeply entrenched?

Corruption is not a cultural fatality; it is the product of a failure of administrative systems and an opacity maintained for the benefit of selfish interests. To defeat it, human arbitrariness must be replaced by radical transparency engineering. At the CBDA, we formalize and audit all facilitation processes to eliminate the discretion of intermediaries.

At the State level, my transition strategy will be implacable: integrity will be sanctified by the complete digitalization of customs and tax procedures, the absolute independence of financial justice, and a zero-tolerance policy applied from the very top of the State apparatus. When the summit of the State embodies absolute probity, the entire administration aligns out of necessity.

Climate change is expected to disproportionately affect African economies despite the continent contributing relatively little to global emissions. Do you believe African business

leaders should redefine development models rather than replicate industrial pathways followed elsewhere?

This is an absolute strategic obligation. Servilely replicating the thermo-industrial, carbon-heavy, and linear industrial model that has led the planet into an ecological dead end would be a major historical mistake. Africa has the unique opportunity to achieve a major technological leap.

We must invent our own growth model, based on the circular economy, sovereign renewable energy, and the ethical preservation of our exceptional natural capital. This is precisely the vision I deploy at the CBDA through our initiatives on the sustainable blue economy: demonstrating that it is scientifically and economically viable to industrialize our nations while honoring and preserving Divine Creation.

How do you see the relationship between entrepreneurship and political leadership in Africa today?

This relationship is currently corrupted by a destructive dynamic of connivence. Too often, political power instrumentalizes the private sector to maintain state monopolies or fund partisan ambitions, while certain economic operators buy tax favors to stifle competition. This crony capitalism blocks the emergence of our national genius.

This relationship must be structurally cleansed. The entrepreneur and the political leader must form a sacred alliance at the service of national power: the entrepreneur brings agility, innovation, and real wealth creation; the political leader guarantees legal security, sovereign infrastructure, and long-term macro-strategic vision.

Should business leaders become more politically engaged, or does that risk compromising institutional independence?

When the vital prognosis of a nation is at stake, political engagement is no longer a career choice, but a patriotic duty and an imperious spiritual mandate. This is the profound meaning of my trajectory. My decision to run for the presidency of the Republic of Cameroon by 2032 is not the fruit of a politician’s ambition or a quest for privileges; it is the execution of a plan for national restoration and republican elevation dictated by the Eternal.

It is by no means a matter of compromising the institutional independence of the CBDA, but of transposing elite governance expertise, a proven integrity on the international stage, and a demonstrated capacity to structure economic flows to the summit of the State apparatus. To rebuild Cameroon and make it the engine of African integration, we need builders in power, not career politicians.

Africa is extraordinarily diverse culturally, economically, and politically, yet it is often treated internationally as a single narrative. How has this oversimplification affected the continent’s business and diplomatic positioning globally?

This essentialist reduction of Africa to a homogeneous block is a major analytical error that penalizes our economic diplomacy by artificially uniformizing risk. My own journey has allowed me to master the complexity and richness of our Francophone (Douala) and Anglophone (Limbe) ecosystems within a single national entity. Multiply this dynamic to the scale of 54 sovereign States.

The CBDA works to deconstruct this condescending bias by demonstrating to international observers and investors the fine granularity of our markets, the specificity of our regulatory frameworks, and the intelligence of our regional corridors (CEMAC, ECOWAS, AfCFTA). We transform our diversity into a targeted and powerful lever of attractiveness.

What lessons from African models of resilience, informality, and community-based economics do you believe the rest of the world still underestimates or misunderstands?

The Western world, often trapped in rigid theoretical models and the algorithmic illusion, deeply underestimates the financial rationality and organizational intelligence of our informal sector. My path as a self-taught entrepreneur forged in the field proved to me that our community mechanisms such as tontines, grassroots solidarity savings, or mutual credit systems based on social capital constitute exceptionally effective shock absorbers in the face of systemic crises.

The global economy, today dehumanized and weakened by a financialization disconnected from the real economy, would gain greatly from studying and integrating this human, ethical, and sacred dimension of the given word as the foundation of financial trust.

If future generations were to assess the current era of African economic transformation, what do you hope they would say about the role your organization played in shaping a more independent, innovative, and self-confident continent?

I hope history will record this testimony: “The CBDA was the strategic instrument raised by God at a turning point in history to definitively extirpate African business from the humiliating posture of institutional begging and aid-seeking, to install it sovereignly on the world stage in the exclusive posture of high-level, equal-to-equal bilateral facilitation.” I want posterity to remember that we broke the inferiority complex that fettered our economic elites and that we reinstated in every young African the absolute certainty that they possess the legitimacy, the intelligence, and the inalienable right to direct the economy of their land.

Has there been a book, film, or work of art that significantly influenced the way you see the world or think about your work?

The Holy Bible is my only bedside book, my absolute compass, and the exclusive matrix of my strategic thinking. It is not just a book of faith; it is the greatest treatise on high strategy, human crisis management, and transitional leadership that has ever crossed the ages.

It is this rigor of thought and this sense of human responsibility before the Creator that guided my intellectual engagement, notably during the co-authorship of the reference macro-economic book “Bridging Borders, Building Futures: The Integrated Africa We Want by 2063”, alongside Dr. Patricia Gonde. Any development project or political transition disconnected from universal principles of justice, equity, and moral truth is condemned by history to collapse.

Looking at younger generations today, what gives you the greatest sense of hope, and what concerns you the most?

What gives me immense hope is their technological audacity, their global connectivity, and their visceral refusal of the political status quo. Just like the young 6th-grade student I was, they dream of greatness and direct impact on society, and they display remarkable agility in hacking traditional barriers.

On the other hand, my major concern lies in the deficit of stable ethical landmarks and the deleterious cult of immediacy fueled by the digital ecosystem. If this formidable energy is not anchored in God and channeled by historical discipline, it runs the critical risk of losing its way in the same occult labyrinths, mystical compromises, and easy illusions of power where I myself

got lost when I was younger looking for answers. Transitional leadership requires depth, the long view, and sacred foundations.

If you could spend a full day with any historical figure, who would you choose, and what questions would you want to ask them?

I would choose without a shadow of a doubt to spend a whole day with The Lord Jesus Christ, when He manifested His presence among men on the fleshly plane. As a man of God, Chairman of an international institution, and a leader engaged in a state restoration project, I would place myself at His feet to ask Him the most vital questions for the leadership of nations: “Lord, You who embodied the perfection of justice and supreme authority amidst the decay and contradictions of men, how did You manage to maintain such absolute humility in the face of the pride of the powerful? How can one immunize one’s soul against doubt and strategic fatigue when geopolitical storms rage and structures resist change? And above all, how did You find the strength to love and sacrifice Yourself to the very end for a humanity capable of plotting Your fall, betraying Your efforts, and refusing Your light?” His answers would forever seal my armor as a Head of State for Cameroon and Africa.

If you were asked to teach a class on a subject completely unrelated to your profession, what would it be, and what would you hope students take away from it?

I would deliver a masterclass in high political psychology on the spiritual and strategic transmutation of injustice into a fuel for destiny. By analytically drawing on the defining episode of my childhood in Douala and my past wanderings within occult lodges, I would scientifically demonstrate how a deep trauma, a systemic wound, or an iniquitous arbitration can be converted, through the Grace of God, into a sovereign vocation and an invincible strength of character.

I would want my students to take away the absolute certainty that no cabal, no human plot, no administrative injustice has the power to block a destiny traced by the hand of the Creator, if one knows how to transmute pain into vision.

If you could ensure that one human value is never lost in society, which value would you choose, and why?

I would choose Integrity. Integrity is the absolute and flawless consistency between the secret of the prayer altar, the rigor of the CBDA Board of Directors’ deliberations, and the rigorous exercise of power at the summit of the State apparatus. It is the definitive refusal of double-talk, corridor compromises, and the betrayal of commitments.

A republic can survive harsh economic crises or complex health shocks; but when the moral integrity of its leaders collapses, trust evaporates, the social contract dissolves, and the State capitulates to anarchy and corruption. Integrity is the keystone of any civilization of excellence.

Humanity is facing radical changes. To name just ten: geopolitical instability, climate change, economic inequalities, technological risks, public health challenges, political polarization, resource scarcity, humanitarian crises, misinformation, and disparities in global healthcare access. If, in an imaginative exercise, you had the power to solve one of these problems, which one would you choose first and why?

I would immediately solve the challenge of structural Economic Inequalities through the prism of the Sovereignty of Peoples. Extreme economic disparities and asymmetric power relations on the international stage are the root cause of almost all the crises on this list. It is the organized plundering and non-local transformation of a region’s resources for the benefit of another that fuel geopolitical instability, cause dramatic migration crises, and exacerbate political polarization.

By restoring to African nations the mastery of their productive apparatus and the industrial capacity for local transformation, we eradicate structural poverty at its source. We give back to peoples the autonomous tools of their dignity, putting an end to a century of interference and dependence.

What do you believe human beings owe one another, both as individuals and as members of a global society?

We owe each other Fraternity in Justice and the unconditional recognition of our equal Dignity. As a man of God and political leader, I have the deep conviction that every human being is fashioned in the image of the Creator. The international stage must imperatively break with postures of diplomatic condescension, institutional paternalism, and economic predation.

We owe it to ourselves to establish bilateral relations based on the truth of commitments, the transparency of processes, and the real equity of gains, so that each people can live worthily and sovereignly from the fruit of their labor under the gaze of God.

Interviews often focus on successes. Could you share something from 2025 that did not unfold as you expected, and what that experience taught you?

In 2025, the operational deployment and contractualization of some of our regional hubs on the continent were slowed down by heavy bureaucratic inertias and local administrative conservatism, which contrasted sharply with the exponential speed of our conceptual and diplomatic recognition internationally.

For the leader of action and field experience that I am, this experience constituted a masterclass in strategic patience and state realism. It reminded me that the structural reshaping of a continent does not operate at the pace of entrepreneurial enthusiasm, but requires knowing how to maneuver with endurance, administrative rigor, and firmness in the long view of public administrations. This is an invaluable preparation for the supreme state functions that await me.

Are there any personal or professional goals you feel comfortable sharing for 2026?

On the institutional level, 2026 marks the great territorial anchoring of the CBDA. Our major objectives include the finalization of our regional headquarters agreements, notably our strategic establishment in Algeria, following our noted interventions at the African Startup Conference in Algiers. It is also the year of the consecration of my intellectual and geopolitical journey with the official receipt of my Doctor Honoris Causa distinction in Bangui in October, under the High Patronage of His Excellence Professor Faustin-Archange Touadéra, President of the Central African Republic.

On the spiritual and personal level, my absolute goal is to deepen my consecration and my pastoral ministry. It is at the foot of the altar, in the silence of prayer, that I draw the divine direction and the ethical solidity indispensable to lead the CBDA and structure, with international observers and the vital forces who share our vision, the milestones of our great national restoration project for Cameroon by 2032.

When you imagine the final moments of your life, what kind of news would you most hope to hear, and why?

At the end of my life, my only hope is to hear the Lord say to me: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have fought the good fight, your reward is great.” Why? Because hearing these words from my Creator would mean that I did not betray the divine mandate received on December 31, 2022 for the CBDA. It would mean that I served my people with sacrificial fidelity, that I remained pure in the midst of the storms, and that my passage on this earth left an indelible mark of dignity, freedom, and righteousness for future generations. There is no greater victory than to stand before the Eternal knowing you completed the work He gave you to do.