About 78,000 metric tons of fish are caught annually. Offshore petroleum exploitation began in the late 1970s, and an oil refinery has been built on the coast at Limboh Point. Cameroon's output of crude petroleum, mostly for export, reached 61 million barrels a year during the early 1990s. Small amounts of gold and tin concentrates are also produced. An exchange rate of 50 CFA francs equal to 1 French franc was in force until 1994, when the CFA franc was devalued by 50 percent.
Unpaved roads are frequently impassable during the rainy season.
The port of Garoua on the Benue River in the north is open two to three months a year and handles most of the trade with Nigeria. Cameroon Airlines provides domestic and international service. Government Cameroon is governed under a constitution promulgated in 1972 and subsequently revised. The president of the republic is chief of state and commander of the armed forces and is elected by universal suffrage. A 1995 amendment to the constitution extended the president's term from five years to seven and introduced a two-term limit.