Between the end of 2019 and September 2020, the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) received from its member states a total of 139 oil and mining contracts and agreements signed with oil and mining companies, including 28 from Gabon.
Requested before the end of May 2017, it is finally between the end of 2019 and September 2020, that the copies of the contracts and agreements signed between each State of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cemac) and the oil and mining companies, were made available to the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).
According to the “Research Letter n ° 9, from the BEAC” of February 5, 2021, drawing up an inventory of the transmission to the BEAC of contracts and agreements signed with oil and mining companies, the central bank received 139 contracts and agreements according to the following distribution: Cameroon (13); Congo (40); Gabon (28); Equatorial Guinea (36); Chad (22) and RCA (1). This obligation aims, according to the BEAC, to ensure their compliance with the provisions of foreign exchange regulations to ensure better monitoring of the process of repatriation of income from the export of these products.
“It should be noted that the transmission to the BEAC by the Cemac States of these contracts and agreements, which for the most part derogate from the exchange regulations in force in the Cemac, has been entered as conditionality (structural benchmark) to be respected by each of the States of the CEMAC, in program with the International Monetary Fund. At this stage, all contracts and agreements have been transmitted, ”assures the central bank.
According to the BEAC, the positive effects linked to the rigorous monitoring of regulatory provisions relating to exchange are essentially. It conditions the increase in repatriations and retrocessions, and the substantial improvement in the average processing time of transfer requests within the BEAC. Because very often, the mining and oil companies established in the CEMAC wish to avoid the application of the exchange regulations in matters of domiciliation of exports, prohibition of holding accounts in onshore and off-shore currencies and repatriation of export earnings.
“However, Cemac’s regulatory framework is based on the main pillar, which is the principle of centralizing all foreign currency assets of residents at the BEAC. It should be remembered that these assets are important for the area, because they not only guarantee the stability of the currency, but also allow the Cemac economies to settle their international transactions (imports, external debt, etc.) ”assures the BEAC .
