[en] The concentration of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K in natural and fabricated building materials used in Cameroon was investigated by a high-resolution γ-ray spectrometry system with a co-axial HPGe detector. Fourteen kinds of building materials were collected from factories and in the field. Each sample was therefore kept in a 500 ml plastic Marinelli beakers and measured in a very low-background laboratory. The measured activity concentrations range from 1.76 to 49.84 Bq kg^-1, from 0.32 to 147.2 Bq kg^-1 and from 18.16 to 1226.29 Bq kg^-1 for ²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K respectively. The highest mean value of ²³⁸U concentration was found in red compressed soil-brick type I (49.57±0.33 Bq kg^-1) produced by MIPROMALO whereas the highest average concentration of ²³²Th (138.89±12.51 Bq kg^-1) and ⁴⁰K (1161.46±107.57 Bq kg^-1) was found in gravel collected from an exploitation site in LOGBADJECK. The activity concentrations obtained were compared with available data from other investigations and with the world average value for soils. The radium equivalent activity Ra_eq, the external hazard index H_ex as well as the indoor absorbed dose rate D radical in air and the annual effective dose equivalent H radical_E were evaluated to assess the radiation hazards for people living in dwellings made of studied materials. All building materials have shown Ra_eq activity (range from 10.15 to 312.57 Bq kg^-1) lower than the limit of 370 Bq kg^-1 set in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 1979) report, and which is equivalent to a γ-dose of 1.5 mSv yr^-1 All the examined materials are acceptable for use as building materials in accord with the OECD criterion. (author)