Banks to support parents with school loans

The 2015 school loan campaign launched by banks in early June is an opportunity to expand the customer portfolio

This service allows parents of pupils to get some money to cater for expenses for their children when schools reopen. In most Yaoundé banks visited by Cameroon Tribune (CT), the campaign is in full swing.

The queue for this service gradually became long as the results of school examinations were published. Yet parents want to be in time with respect to tuition fees.

"I do not want to wait until the last minute. And from where I came from, I prefer to take credit for the school rates of my five children," said Therese Ngweha, a parent.

Elsewhere, it was more stressful as customers had to patiently wait to be attended to by account managers in charge of the task.

"Every day, we have a different group of people that we advise and orient according to their needs and conditions to be met," said Lebun Darlis Ndzomo responsible for a particular clientele credit institution in Yaoundé. The operation is quite profitable for banks. "Already, the number of clients has increased. It has brought in more money and increased revenues," said Lebun Darlis Ndzomo.

"For 2014, we had FCFA 2 billion, in the school credit," says another bank executive. "Apart from former clients, others have been convinced on the merits of academic credit or even just subscribe out of curiosity," adds our source. Banks also benefit from this campaign to satisfy their customers and retain the old ones because "repayment conditions are quite flexible," said Lebun Darlis Ndzomo.

However, there are still some challenges. In the view of some bankers, convincing customers to subscribe to the offer is not always easy. Sometimes, over-indebtedness of individuals prevents the bank to recover its expenses on time. Furthermore, the distance does not allow us to reach potential customers located in remote areas. Cameroon Tribune