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Cameroon - Head of Government

HE Mr Paul Biya, President

HE Mr Paul Biya became President of the Republic of Cameroon following the resignation of his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo, in 1982.

Mr Biya was returned to office in 1984, 1988, 1992 (by the first pluralist presidential ballot ever held in the country), and in 1997 and 2004 for seven-year terms.

Mr Biya held the post of Chairperson of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement in 1985 following its transformation from the Cameroon National Union Party, which he has also chaired since 1983.

Mr Biya was Prime Minister in 1975 and Secretary-General in the Office of the President in 1970. Before that, he was Director of Cabinet in the Office of the Minister of National Education in 1964 and Chargé de Mission of the Presidency of Cameroon in 1962.

Mr Biya attended the University of Sorbonne’s Faculty of Law and the Institut des Haute Études d’Outre-Mer.

Mr Biya was born in 1933 in Mvomeka’a, South Province, Cameroon.