Common bank card officially launched in CEMAC zone

The Inter Bank Money Group of Central Africa (GIMAC - Groupement interbancaire monétique de l’Afrique centrale) proceeded on 21 October 2016 in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, with the official launch of the interbank GIMAC card. This instrument now allows operations at terminals and other ATMs of banks in activity in the six States of CEMAC which are Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Chad and Equatorial Guinea.

This official launch, we learn, intervenes well after the start of use of this card, which has been operational since the first quarter of 2015. According to the management of GIMAC, this communal bank card, actually used on the networks of 20 banks in the CEMAC zone, has already resulted in transactions of around FCfa 5 billion to date.

This volume of transactions should increase tenfold with the official launch of the card. For example, after the Douala ceremony, the International Bank of Cameroon of Savings and Credit (BICEC - Banque internationale du Cameroun pour l’épargne et le crédit), subsidiary of the French Group BPCE, immediately announced to its clients having 100 ATMs open on the GIMAC network.

In fact, if it is involved in the financial integration of the countries of the CEMAC zone, the GIMAC card arrives in a market where Visa and Mastercard already reign supreme.

From this point of view, the main challenge for GIMAC lies in its capacity to identify the right formula, so that its communal bank card finds its way in an environment where it is an infant called to compete with adults.