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Cameroon: A Veritable Hob for Jobs
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Lukong Pius Nyuylime
Though Africa as a continent lags behind in microfinance development, the past years have witnessed some spotty effort to make the sector grow.
According to authorities of the department in charge of microfinance in the Ministry of Finance, the number of licences issued to actors has been in constant progress and activities taking an exponential dimension. « There are about 400 microfinance establishments in the country as at now », Zo'o Olouman Guy-Roger, Sub Director of Microfinance in the Ministry of Finance told Cameroon Tribune in an interview. There were about 387 of such establishments in 2007, he said. According to Zo'o Olouman, of this number, the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League (CamCCUL) alone has over 177.
The past years have seen the publication of the list of authorised microfinance establishments in a bid to weed out impostors and cleanse the sector which is fast becoming a reliable weapon for the fight against poverty. "Our objective is basically to take microfinance to the grassroots. We are not interested in Yaounde and Douala but in smaller localities where we want to instil the spirit of competition", the finance official stated.
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But the zeal to develop the sector is hampered by a number of obstacles including the law itself. Microfinance institutions in Cameroon are caught in between and betwix. They are regulated by three different laws: the national law, the CEMAC law and the OHADA law. Which one to apply is the question on many lips. Many other problems have been pulling back activities in the sector. The adminsitration has been finding it difficult to effectively control their activities.
There is clear absence of governance in the management of microfinance. In fact, almost all the microfinance institutions have at least one strong shareholder who tends to influence the smooth functioning of the institution especially when it comes to giving out loans. Many microfinance establishments neither have legal nor fiscal security. Many of them train their staff just to allow them later into the hands of professional banks. A majority of the microfinance establishments have serious problems of liquiditiy and as such are unable to satisfy 5 per cent of the customers. Already, government is about to put in place a refinancing fund to help the situation. This fund will be financed by the African Development Bank.
At the level of the Central African sub-region, since 2002, CEMAC adopted a legal framework to organise the activities of the sector. This framework according to the Governor of the bank of Cenmtral Asfrican States (BEAC), Philibert Andzembe, went operational in 2007. Out of 1,000 microfinance establishments in the six countries of CEMAC, 677 have been authorised after having assessed financially and institutionally. This is the result of the inventory carried out by the Central African Banking Commission (COBAC) in collaboration with the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). "By the end of 2007, the number of clients served by Microfinance establishments rose to over 1.3 million against 445,000 in 2000", Andzembe said during the recent forum on microfinance organised in Yaounde.
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