The Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund will rule on Cameroon’s request for financial assistance on April 28, 2020. The Central African country has been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic with more than 1,500 declared cases of infected people, with over 50 deaths.
To fight against the disease, the country has applied for a Rapid Credit Facility (FCR) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Board of Directors of the financial institution will rule on this request on April 28, 2020.
Sources indicate that Cameroon could obtain around 108 billion FCFA. But this amount has not yet been confirmed by the authorities. “
Obtaining this support from the IMF, “should give Yaoundé the opportunity to seek the benefit of the G20 initiative. It aims to suspend the payment of the principal and the interest on the bilateral debt due to the G20 countries between May 1 and December 31, 2020. ”
To finance its budget in 2020, the Parliament authorized the mobilization of nearly CFAF 350 billion in non-concessional loans. “If Cameroon has recourse to the G20 initiative, it will have to put an end to them.” The IMF recommends that the countries receiving its support spend it as a priority to save lives by investing in medical equipment and infrastructure .”
The term sheet of the G-20 Moratorium states that it will last from May to December 2020 and only involves the debts owed to “official bilateral creditors.” This means that beneficiaries still have to service the debts for the first four months of 2020.
The Ministry of Finance in her budget execution report of the past three years indicates that, Cameroon has always serviced 22.5% of its annual external debts commitments in the first quarter. This implies that, the country has already paid at least 52.2 billion FCFA of those debts this year.
