SME/SMI Bank’s Obligation To Succeed
By Nkendem FORBINAKE, Cameroon Tribune
Though the doors of the building are still to be opened to the
public, activity there leaves no doubt that the much-awaited institution
could just be a few months – or even weeks – from going operational.
The Bank has taken long in coming but the wish of many is that the bank
ever came at all; given the high demand expected from Cameroonians and
the expectations about its capacity to help jump-start economic activity
by providing the much-need funding which has been identified as one of
the problems holding down the development of small and medium-sized
undertakings in the country.
The absence of a financial institution to help translate into
concrete reality, the numerous business initiatives undertaken by a new
crop of young Cameroonians who have all the required skills to animate
this sector of the economy but who all too often were blocked in their
enthusiasm by the absence of a credible bank dedicated specifically for
the sector.
The absence of such a bank had greatly encouraged the overly presence
of multinationals and other foreign investment banks which have
literally won over all major contracts and other business initiatives,
leaving national SME/SMIs with the crumbs because of their cash-strapped
condition.
One can therefore understand the joy when the President of the
Republic announced the creation of a bank for SME/SMIs when he opened
the Ebolowa Agricultural and Cattle Show in January 2011. Barely six
months later, the new bank, was formally set up following a constitutive
general assembly of shareholders held in Yaounde in June 2011. Things
seemed to be going rather slowly until the Minister of Finance, Alamine
Ousmane Mey announced, at the close of the annual meeting of staff of
his ministry in January 2013, which the bank’s start off capital of FCFA
10 billion had been paid off.
The next significant step in the process of the bank’s birth was the
formal designation of its leadership in June this year with a renowned
banker and former Veepee of the African Development Bank, Theodore Nkodo
Foumena as chairman and Mrs Mandeng née Agnes Ndoumbe and Amadou Haman,
two well-tested financial specialists as managing director and deputy
managing director respectively.
With the capital at hand and the management team in place, one can
understand the time being taken to get every aspect of the bank working
before the doors are formally opened. The leaders are in no rushing
mood. For good reason, if not simply to avoid errors of past similar
initiatives which inform a meticulous consideration of every action and
activity so as to ensure a thorough symphony once the bank gets
operational.
For one thing, the demands on the bank are very high and on its
shoulders, lies the huge responsibility of jump-starting economic
activities through handy financing for enterprises and industries. One
best encapsulates the situation by the simple fact that SME/SMIs account
for more than 90 per cent of the industrial output of the country. The
new bank therefore has an obligation to succeed. And that is probably
why it is taking such a long time to be put on the rails.
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