SME Bank to open in Yaounde on July 20

The Cameroonian Bank of SMEs (BCPME) officially opens its doors today, July 20, 2015 in Yaoundé according to an official statement by the Board of Directors of this new public set up.

The agency in Douala, the economic capital of the country, will begin operating on August 3, 2015, according to the same source.

However, Agnès Ndoumbe Mandeng, the DG of what would become the 14th active Bank in Cameroon, said in an interview with the government daily that there will be a "technical opening" pending the upcoming official opening. Thus the official launch of the activities of BCPME will start with a capital of 10 billion FCfa.

Through this so-called technical opening, by means of which the Bank officially begins the recruitment of its clientele, the BCPME indicated that it is ready to launch its activities, the technical infrastructure and human resource (100 employees) is now in place, according to assurances from the DG.

As a reminder, this opening by the Cameroonian Bank of SMEs is the consecration of a promise made by the head of State in January 2011 during the agricultural Comice of Ebolowa. It also includes the creation of an agricultural Bank to finance the agriculture sector (still ongoing).

Paul Biya further disclosed the launch of a bank dedicated to the financing of SMEs, considered as the main engine of economic growth but are plagued with difficulties of access to financing in Cameroon.

Since June 5, 2014, BCPME is led by Agnès Ndoumbé Mandeng, former Director of the monetary and financial Cooperation to the Directorate General of the Treasury at the Ministry of finance. The Board of Directors is chaired by Théodore Nkodo Foumena, former student of the University of Maryland, who worked at the World Bank Group, prior to joining the African Development Bank (ADB). He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency against Donald Kaberuka.