Africa · Middle Africa · Sovereign state
Current time in Cameroon
A single time zone at UTC+01:00.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
About Cameroon's time
A single time zone.
Cameroon keeps it simple with a single timezone across its entire territory, using West Africa Time (UTC+1). The country has never observed daylight saving time, so what you see is what you get year-round.
Major cities
Cities of Cameroon.
History
How Cameroon keeps time.
Cameroon has used UTC+1, now called West Africa Time, since 1912, when the territory was the German colony of Kamerun. After World War I it was split between French and British administration. After independence in 1960, Cameroon kept UTC+1 as its sole official time.
In 1961 the British-administered Southern Cameroons voted to join Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons joined Nigeria. Both had been run alongside Nigeria, which has also used UTC+1 since 1919, so reunification needed no clock change. No daylight saving time has ever been observed by Cameroon.
Did you know?
Things about Cameroon's time.
Cameroon lies between about 8°E and 16°E, well inside the band that suits UTC+1, though its main cities sit west of the zone's 15°E meridian: on average, solar noon in Douala and Yaoundé comes around 12:15–12:20 on the clock. The sun therefore rises and sets a little later by the clock than in neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic.
One interesting note is that Cameroon shares UTC+1 with its neighbors Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, and Equatorial Guinea. This coordination across Central and West Africa, mostly stemming from colonial standardizations, makes scheduling cross-border work relatively painless in the region. There is also no internal debate about differentiating multiple zones: despite Cameroon spanning from around 8°E to 16°E longitude — about half an hour of solar time — the country has never sought a second timezone.
Convert
Cameroon to the world's clocks.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Cameroon's time zone, daylight saving rules, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- What timezone is Cameroon in?
- Cameroon uses West Africa Time (WAT), which is UTC+1. There is only one timezone for the entire country.
- Does Cameroon observe daylight saving time?
- No, Cameroon does not observe daylight saving time. The clock stays UTC+1 all year round.
- Many neighboring countries have the same offset as Cameroon. Does that simplify travel?
- Yes. Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea all share the same UTC+1 offset as Cameroon, greatly simplifying cross-border scheduling.
- Is Cameroon always on West Africa Time?
- Since independence in 1960 (and the 1961 reunification with former British Cameroons), Cameroon has consistently used West Africa Time (UTC+1). The formerly British-administered Southern Cameroons, which joined in 1961, was already on UTC+1, the same time as Nigeria.
- Does Cameroon have more than one timezone?
- No. Despite spanning roughly 8° of longitude from east to west, Cameroon maintains a single timezone nationwide: West Africa Time (WAT).
- What is the best way to convert Cameroon time to other timezones?
- Cameroon is exactly one hour ahead of UTC/GMT. It's a straightforward +1 hour offset, which makes conversion simple for travel planning or virtual meetings.
Source: IANA tzdb2026d · Reviewed
Free · Developer API
This country, as JSON.
Its default time zone, zone and city counts and DST summary, from one endpoint.
Also in the API: time zones by coordinates, conversions that flag daylight saving gaps, and abbreviations decoded.
Moving off WorldTimeAPI? Our drop-in replacement needs no key.