Cameroon:Finance Minister Demonstrates Why Anglophones are an endangered species

Rita Akana

Alamine Ousmane Mey, Cameroon Finance Minister has provided details of the third bond issued by the state of Cameroon.  The minister revealed to local and international media on Tuesday the 16th of December the framework of the bond, its purpose, its characteristics and conditions of subscription, and the different mechanisms related to the operation. Cameroon Concord gathered that the funds collected will be used to partially finance structuring projects included in the 2014 Finance Act and none of these projects is in Anglophone Cameroon.

The Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo Finance Minister cited what he described as major projects which included the tarring of 27,381 kilometres of roads in Francophone Cameroon, the continuation of work at the Kribi port (a project that was born after the Francophone Beti-Ewondo government stifled the Limbe port scheme) and the Douala- Yaounde highway.

Minister Alamine Ousmane revealed that  the ECMR bond had a subscription rate of 5.5%  which is also net nominal interest rate per year from 2014 to 2019) and extends from 24 November to 23 December 2014.  The operation launched by the Cameroonian government is open to all interested investors and has received from the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) the operation safety waste mechanism. The amount of the bond issue by public offering (ECMR) is 150 billion FCFA. The price of the bond is 10 000 FCFA minimum for the subscription, 10 obligations. 15 million of bonds in total have been placed on the market.

The Finance boss said the date of duration for the use of selected titles is 3 days after the closing of the transaction and it also has a 1 year grace period. However, our chief economic reporter says it is unwise for any investor to channel his money to a country where cabinet ministers are constantly being harassed by judges of a so called Special Criminal Court.