NEWSLETTER 15 – 28 JULY 2013

33 MFIs closed

Cameroon’s Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, has revoked the licenses of 33 microfinance institutions dotted in 7 out the ten regions of Cameroon. On Wednesday July 17, Ousmane Mey published the list following decisions taken between 2010 and 2012, the French Language daily, Le Jour.

Reasons for the decision revolve around fraud and out lawlessness-non respect of defined rules. Generally, these decisions are part of a crackdown, the ministry took years back to clean up the sector.

Sources in the ministry told Cameroon Tribune another list of more than 30 MFIs will be published soon. Control teams are hard at work on the field.

Fear has gripped clients of these intuitions as word goes round that their coffers are empty, a nagging concern. But, our source said shareholders and managers of these intuitions could be charged for misuse of corporate assets or breach of trust in case of an insufficient balance, quoting the law on microfinance.

With regard to those whose salaries were paid through these MFIs, the Minister said that “the ministry stopped passing salaries of civil servants through these institutions in 2010.”

Biz Finance PLc, one of the suspended 33 MFIs was already close for three years. Several MFIs in Cameroon collapse soon after opening their doors, leaving poor families, the bulk of their clientele entrenched in misery.

Adventurers and people of bad faith have taken advantage of less tough conditions to open a microfinance outfit. Our source admits these loop holes exist but said reforms are on the way. “The Ministry is aware of deficiencies in the requirements for entry into the profession, especially in the control. This is why it has proposed to strengthen the conditions for access to the profession of microfinance,” he said.

Source: Business in Cameroon www.businessincameroon.com

SME financing: new approaches proposed

This is yet another reflection on the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Closed last Thursday in Yaounde. This time, the organizers of the Forum on matching financing to the needs of SMEs, bring in some innovation which equally includes micro enterprises. "Banks should start working with technical relay. This means that the promoter of a micro-enterprise or SME who is seeking a borrowing from a bank has to refer to the bank’s technical relays", Guy Robert Anong, partner-manager of the Economic Development Agency (ADE Cameroun), organizer of the forum, explained.

An initiative highly approved by the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts (MINPMEESA): "This is an initiative that is consistent with decentralization", Mary Louise Secke Pouka MINPMEESA’s General Secretary, highlighted yesterday at the opening of the forum. Indeed, urban councils play a key role in the strategy developed by ADE. To date, 20 SMEs from 10 councils, especially Tiko, Idenau, Douala Ier or Ebolowa already enjoy the support of ADE. At the end of the forum last Thursday, the promoters of these projects finalized tripartite agreements to qualify for funding. The projects developed by those SMEs are estimated at around XAF 3.5 billion "By two months latest, funding will be available. The Guarantee Fund for Economic Cooperation (Fagace) is the leader and wants to fund these projects directly", Guy Robert Anong added.

Forum participants were able to discover the expertise of these small processing units. Almost all of them work on equity. This is the case of Nyango & Co Company. This microstructure based in Limbe and involving nearly 500 women is specialized in the transformation of palm oil. "Our dream is to obtain funding to increase our production and sale in the whole CEMAC sub-region", Cecile Elango, one of the officials, explained. Ditto for Sunny Day Enterprise. "We already have a field in Muyuka where we want to build a factory that will employ at least 200 Cameroonians", said Theodore Leke, president of this processing unit in natural fruit juice, with a monthly production of 200 to 250 bottles of juice.

Source: translated from the article “ Financement des Pme: de nouvelles approches proposées ”, Cameroon Tribune, July 26, 2013 ; www.cameroon-tribune.cm

Growth: IMF agrees with the BEAC

According to IMF is, CEMAC’s growth falls between 3 and 3.5% in 2013, while the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) expects 3.2%. This down forecast results from the reduction of public investment in Equatorial Guinea.
The growth forecast for 2013 in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) is between 3 and 3.5%, after 5.2% in 2012, according to an IMF mission that has just completed its investigations with sub-regional institutions. "The situation in Equatorial Guinea, with the expected decline in public investment explains the underperformance," the Head of Mission, Joel Toujas-Bernaté, said yesterday in Yaounde. However, in an interview with Jeune Afrique in May, the director of the IMF's African Department, Antoinette Sayeh Monsio, forecasted 4.5% this year.

Medium-Term Optimism

This forecast confirms agrees with the Bank of Central African States’ (BEAC) which has revised its forecast downward for the second time since the beginning of the year. On Friday, July 19, the monetary policy committee then talked of 3.2% rate, after an estimated 4.1% in March and 5.8% in December 2012.

The IMF remains optimistic about the medium term prospects of the region and forecasts an increase by 4% on average over the next five years; provided that there is no "significant and prolonged decline in oil prices and other commodities", a statement said, however.

Source: translated from the article “ Croissance : le FMI d'accord avec la Beac ", Jeune Afrique Economie www.economie.jeuneafrique.com

Fight against Customs Fraud: Stakeholders Take Notes on Ethics

A three-day international workshop moderated by world-class facilitators began in Mbankomo yesterday, July 22.

Senior customs officials in the country are currently being schooled on strategies they can embrace at work to uphold ethics and improve governance at individual and national levels. This is within the framework of a three-day (July 22-24) international workshop on individual and professional ethics in the customs administration that went underway at the CAF training centre in Mbankomo yesterday July 22.

Organised by the Customs Ethics and Governance Promotion Committee of the customs department in collaboration with international partners; Advocate International and Pointman Leadership Institute, the workshop seeks to arm Chiefs of Sector and Chiefs of Division of the customs administration with the necessary tools to consolidate achievements and improve their personal for efficiency in service delivery and revenue collection.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Director General of Customs, Minette Libom Li Likeng, said the vision of the customs administration is to ensure modern, dynamic, transparent and efficient customs services piloted by honest, impartial and competent officials who put a high premium on responsible behaviour and respect of the law and public property.  “This workshop is very important for us because we are already in the fight against corruption. We have been working tooth and nail to uphold ethics, ensure good governance and combat corruption within the customs administration. But we cannot say that we have wholly attained our objectives,” she said. The still-visible pockets of resistance from hard-to-die habits, she noted, will be combated vigorously.  “We are privileged to be trained by two very important international institutes in charge of integrity. It will help us to consolidate our achievements and collectively embrace the virtue of integrity in the customs administration,” Libom Li Likeng said.

The President of the Customs Ethics and Governance Promotion Committee, Hon. Daniel Claude Abate and the workshop facilitators like Henri Minder and Quiistus Smit of Pointman Leadershship Institute, all agreed that problems of ethics and governance are universal and need concerted actions to be dealt with. When one person in a department fails in character, he fails the whole department, they underscored, stating the necessity to encourage people to work on their own character and that of their organisations.

Source : Cameroon Tribune www.cameroon-tribune.cm

First Ship docks in Kribi Port Next Year

In June 2014, the first vessel will anchor at the Kribi deep seaport (component of the Kribi industrial port complex), confirmed the coordinator of the project, Patrice Melom in an interview published in the Cameroon Tribune on Wednesday June 17 2013. Kribi port is located at a distance of about 200 kilometers from Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon.

The developer, China Habour Engineering Company (CHEC), a Chinese company working as an EPC contractor (EPCC), agreed to deliver the keys of the commissioned project to the Cameroon, Patrice Melom noted.

85% of the project is funded by China Import and Export Bank (China EximBank) and the rest is from the State of Cameroon.

It has two specialized terminals: a multipurpose terminal and a container terminal, and the first phase will create 2,000 direct jobs.

Initiated in the 1980s, it was only was revived in 2008, and construction began on December 27, 2010 after Cameroon reached the completion point of the HIPC initiative, marked by the cancelling of external debt and the possibility for the state to resume large investments, after two decades of structural adjustment.

Source: Business in Cameroon www.businessincameroon.com

Markets as at July 28, 2013

Against XAF (Indicative only)

	XAF
USD	495.29
EUR	657.70

Source: Bloomberg