This meeting between business leaders and professionals from financial institutions took place on April 14, 2021 at the headquarters of the Groupement Inter-patronal in Douala. The issue of access to finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) was at the center of a meeting held on April 14, 2021 in Douala between the Inter-employer Group (GICAM), the Banks and the Association of Business Professionals of credits (APECCAM).
During this meeting has been described as “unprecedented in the Cameroonian socio-economic microcosm. it was a question of reviewing the bottlenecks, revisiting the main obstacles to the funding of the economy in the perspective of outlining ways and means to identify possible solutions. Ultimately, “act together, think together to set up advocacy aimed at public authorities.”
According to the explanations of Célestin Tawamba, president of GICAM, who was leading the work, the financing of the economy is a matter of Arles. This sinews of war which preoccupies captains of industries and any economic operator poses a double problem for businesses in general. “At the structural level, we note the low rate of credit granted, only 15%.
A paradox in a context stamped with the seal of the excess liquidity of commercial banks which lend less. At the economic level, Célestin Tawamba observes that the currency crisis has increased the costs of transfers. A ubiquitous situation in the context of Covid 19 which is impacting businesses.”
After presentations by the presidents of GICAM and APECCAM, Pierre Kam, secretary of APECCAM, developed an analysis focused on the thematic backbone of “financing the economy in Cameroon in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic”. “The context, the obstacles and the possible solutions have been combed through. The only false note is that the public authorities, as a regulatory body, have not taken part in this storm of ideas.”
