Journalists Acquire Innovative Financing Tools

By Godlove BAINKONG, Cameroon Tribune, 16-06-2014

Members of “Presse Eco” on June 12, 2014, sharpened skills on the mechanisms of raising funds from the capital market.

Economic affairs journalists in Cameroon, members of a network, “Presse Eco” are now edified on the technicalities and reasons behind raising money from the capital market (Stock Exchange) to feed the State treasury for the financing of growth-induced projects. This follows a one-day capacity-building workshop on their honour organized Thursday June 12 by the Directorate General of Treasury of the Ministry of Finance on the theme, “New Mechanisms of financing the State treasury.”

Lectures and plenary discussions focused on determining the financial needs of the State and drawing up the calendar for issuing public bonds, procedure for issuing the bonds in the capital market and Cameroon’s experience especially in 2010 when the State raised FCFA 200 billion through mandatory borrowing. The procedure continued thereafter with FCFA 280 billion planned for the ongoing fiscal year up from FCFA 250 billion of last year.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance, Urban Noel Ebang Mve, said although traditional in some societies, raising money through treasury bonds is still a novelty in Cameroon reason why it was imperative to brief journalists on its technicalities who will in turn better inform and educate the population. Describing knowledge as power, the president of Presse Eco, François Bambou, prayed for regular trainings to keep economic affairs reporters abreast with the functioning of the State’s financing mechanisms and other areas of the country’s economy.

According to one of the panelists, Kendem John Forghab, Sub Director of Treasury Programming in the Ministry of Finance, by virtue of its consistent reimbursement, the State has a good signature and can raise any amount at the stock exchange. “There is a treasury plan and you don’t just borrow for the sake of it. There should be matured projects to be financed with money borrowed,” he said.