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Ayuk Divine

24.Feb.2022

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The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced it has approved a €12 million (XAF7.8 billion) credit line to be opened at the Commercial Bank Cameroon (CBC). The announcement was made during the EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF) organized before the 6th EU-AU summit that was launched on February 17, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. 

According to the EIB, the credit line will help support Cameroonian firms’ resilience amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The agreement will be signed the next time the EIB’s vice-president visits Cameroon, we learn. 

"(...) The €12 million provided by the EIB and the European Union will allow the CBC to grant new loans to the private sector through its branches throughout the country. Thanks to the strong cooperation between the Commercial Bank and EIB financial experts over the past months, Cameroonian businesses will be able to access longer-term loans, which are essential for their growth in this crisis period," said Léandre Djummo, CBC's Director-General. 

"This financing is essential to stimulate investment, create jobs and accelerate the country's post-pandemic recovery. The new agreement reached today illustrates the alliance between Team Europe and African partners to defeat Covid-19 and help businesses create jobs and prosper," said Ambroise Fayolle, EIB Vice President. 

According to the EIB, this partnership with the CBC is part of the international bank's rapid response to build economic resilience amid the pandemic in Africa. It will mainly support business investments in the manufacturing, agricultural, tourism, and commercial sectors.

This is the second initiative taken by the EIB in Cameroon to help businesses resist or recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, on November 17, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was still at its peak, the EIB and Société Générale Cameroon set a XAF10 billion credit line to provide financial support to SMEs with flexible conditions. 

(Business in Cameroon)

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Ayuk Divine

21.Feb.2022

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Cameroon is currently moving to introduce a banking card exclusively dedicated to its civil servants. In the framework of the project, in the first half of 2021, the Ministry of Finance notified GIMAC, CEMAC’s regional switch. 

The introduction of the card falls within the framework of linking the national treasury to the regional switch, we learn. According to the Ministry of Finance, the banking cards linked to virtual accounts will be issued by Cameroon’s public treasury for civil servants (both active and retired). 

The cards, loaded by the public treasury, will allow holders to make online payments or withdraw cash from ATMs in the CEMAC Zone that are affiliated to GIMAC, a body of the central bank BEAC.   

When the card is loaded, the public treasury is not automatically debited. It is debited only when the holder withdraws cash from an ATM or makes an online purchase. The Ministry of Finance explains that for a start, the online operations that can be done are currently limited to those related to operating expenses namely transportation costs, mission allowances, allowances to committee members and working groups, purchase of airplane tickets, changeover costs, etc.

The project launching date has not been disclosed yet. During clearing operations at the central bank, GIMAC will act as an intermediary between Cameroon’s public treasury and banks that own ATMs installed all over CEMAC.

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Ayuk Divine

17.Feb.2022

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Cameroon’s 2022 road maintenance budget has been set to XAF41.479 billion, according to the Ministry of Public Works (Mintp). This budget will be used to maintain 5,496.36 km of national and regional roads, we learn.  

According to the ministry, the budget includes XAF1.659 billion not committed in 2021. For Mintp, the road maintenance budget is significantly lower than the needs estimated at some XAF800 billion. 

This means that only 5.1% of the needed envelope is available to maintain 13.81% of the 23,424.85 kilometers of Cameornn’s national and regional roads this year. As the result, sections that did not go through maintenance will continue to wear out. 

Those figures demonstrate the age-long issue of financing road maintenance in Cameroon. The issue was once again raised by Minister of Public Works Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi while defending Mintp’s 2022 budget before the parliament on December 1, 2021.   

"The linear road network has increased by 121%, from 55,000 km in 2010 to 121,873.93 km in 2021. However, the maintenance resources did not grow accordingly,” he said. As a result, only 48.86% ( 121,873.93 kilometers) of the country’s road network is in a good or average condition while the remaining 51.14% is in a dilapidated state, he added.  

To address the situation, the government intends to not only concede the road maintenance but also implement a new strategy aimed at ensuring the sustainability of dirt roads that constitute well over 93% of the national road network, he explained. 

The new strategy was developed because the Ministry of Public Works noticed that the maintenance solutions implemented so far have limitations. On June 1-3, 2021, a workshop was organized in Yaoundé to discuss the new strategy, we learn.

Business In Cameroon

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Ayuk Divine

17.Feb.2022

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(Business in Cameroon) - Pamol Plantations PLC and CDC, the main victims of the anglophone crisis ongoing since late 2016, are the target of misappropriation investigations. This is at least what the summonses sent to the general managers of those two state firms and some of their collaborators hint at. 

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Ayuk Divine

03.Feb.2022

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