(Investir au Cameroun) – No less than 148 public accounts, spread across 16 commercial banks, currently concentrate more than 711 billion FCFA of public money. These updated figures were communicated by Sophie Boumsong, head of the Budget Reform division at the Ministry of Finance and coordinator of the Financial Governance Support Project – phase III (PAGFI III). These deposits mainly come from the central administration and public institutions, excluding external funding.
According to data from the Directorate General of the Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation of the Ministry of Finance, the Banque internationale du Cameroun pour l’épargne et le crédit (BICEC) held nearly 20 billion FCFA in 25 accounts at the end of 2023. Meanwhile, AFG Bank Cameroun (formerly Atlantique Banque Cameroun) housed 255 billion FCFA in 14 accounts. UBA totaled 135 billion FCFA in 8 accounts, while SCB concentrated 43 billion FCFA in 21 accounts.
Struggling reform
However, the budget reform of July 2018 advocates for a single treasury with centralized collections and decentralized disbursements. In this logic, PAGFI is tasked with repatriating these funds to the Single Treasury Account, housed at the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).
Officials from the Ministry of Finance indicate that public institutions strongly resist this centralization. These entities prefer to keep control over their resources, thus hindering the repatriation process.
The government, for its part, recalls that the Single Treasury Account would allow for more efficient management of public expenditures at the national level. It would also help strengthen the credibility of the state’s signature on financial markets and harmonize payment deadlines around three months.
Consequences
On this point, the Ministry of Finance emphasizes that delays in the payment of state services are mainly due to the lack of liquidity in the Single Treasury Account. At the end of 2023, 711 billion FCFA was still held in commercial banks, while the state’s outstanding payments reached 387 billion FCFA.
Paradoxically, the government continued to mobilize resources on the money market. By the end of 2024, Cameroon had issued 252 billion FCFA in Treasury bonds and 637 billion FCFA in Treasury bills, generating 38 billion FCFA in interest to be repaid. Meanwhile, its cash margins remained available but inaccessible in commercial bank accounts.
Faced with this situation, the Minister of Finance urged the PAGFI III team to intensify its efforts to improve the state’s cash management and strengthen the management of public banking services.
