Bafoussam is the West Region centre of trade, and people are farming coffee, Potatoes, maize and beans.

Most of Bafoussam nightlife centers on the area called Akwa (so-named in honor of the neighborhood in Douala).

Claims are made that the Bamileke were descendants of the Baladis who left Egypt in the ninth century of our era.

Yende, the first prince, refused the throne and crossed the Nun (Noun river) to found the Bafoussam kingdom.

His sister turned to the Banso area (there are about thirty Bamileke villages in the English-speaking North West).

Another source, however, argues that Bafoussam is Fuh Sep's "bad western translation", meaning "we earn more by selling in detail than wholesale".

By 1950, when Bafoussam became a subdivision of the French colonial administration headed by Jacques Lestrigang, very quickly, the village became cosmopolitan because located at the intercession of the tracks connecting the two Cameroon and also the cities charged with history that are Dschang, Foumban and Ngaoundéré.

Thus, important economic operators including the BEAC (Banque des Etats d'Afrique Centrale), Brasseries of Cameroon, and other industrial units in the making orchestrated a rush to the new city.

With climate change in recent years, Bafoussam sometimes reaches 28 °C during the dry season that extends from mid-November to mid-March (four months).

Most students upon graduation travel to other cities like Dschang, Yaounde, Douala, or Buea to attend university or other forms of tertiary institutions.

According to AFRICApolis project, led by e-GEOPOLIS, Bafoussam is the main centre of a Continuous Built-up Area which became a millionaire city in 2015 with a population of about 1,146,230 inhabitants.