The draw for the final tournament of the competition took place on 18 September 2016, 16:00 UTC+1, at the Palais Polyvalent des Sports in Yaoundé. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four. For the draw, the hosts Cameroon were seeded in position A1 and the defending champions Nigeria were seeded in position B1. The remaining six teams were seeded based on their results in the three most recent final tournaments.
