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Out of a workforce estimated at 8,4 million according to the 2011 statistics of the International Labor Office (ILO), only 580,200 people—a coverage rate of 7%—are covered by the National Social Security Fund (CNPS, Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance Sociale) against five risks divided into three main branches of social protection (family benefits; old-age, invalidity and death pensions; and work-related accidents and occupational diseases). This social security coverage deficit is largely explained by the difficulties of social insurance availability in Cameroon. This paper uses historical analysis to uncover the problems which the Cameroonian welfare system has had. The argumentation developed is based both on the literature and on existing statistics. The article shows that since independence, Cameroon has failed to generalize social coverage to all sectors of the labor force. This situation is explained by the problems of extension and improvement of Cameroon’s social protection system. These problems are related to the institutional, economic, and socio-demographic context and to a dysfunctional labor market.