BEAC – SYNDUSTRICAM (Syndicate of Cameroonian industrialist) MEETING
DOUALA (Platinium Cocotiers Hotel) Date: Thursday March 28, 2024
Context and rationale
Since 2014, industries, like all businesses in Cameroon, have been in repeated crises, the peaks having been reached in 2020 with the Covid-19 health crisis and in 2022 with the war in Ukraine. The impact of these crises having external origins on industries was exacerbated by internal bottlenecks, including challenges in transferring currencies. Indeed, the new CEMAC exchange regulations, adopted in December 2018 following laudable and shared motivations like guaranteeing the repatriation of export revenues, limiting uncontrolled currency evasion and preserving the stability of our currency, has continued since its entry into force on 1 March 2019, to be a source of clashes, difficulties and misunderstandings amongst economic operators.
Despite the mitigation and removal of some of the key challenges, thanks to the specific arrangements put in place by the banks and the Central Bank as well as the gradual appropriation of regulations, many concerns remain, particularly regarding industries. The major concerns have been:
- The extension of waiting times for the execution of transfer requests;
- the increase in the cost of foreign currency transfer and purchase commissions and;
- the increasing complexity of procedures. Industries are particularly forced to wait more than 15 days on average for their transfer requests to be executed, a delay which erodes their margins with suppliers.
More serious, they are required, for each transfer operation, to complete the same series of procedures and to provide a large (identical) bundle of documents without any regards for their background yet well known by the banks. The various steps taken to remove these pitfalls come up against a constancy: the rejection of responsibilities between the Banks and the Central Bank, the former indicating in particular only comply with the orders of the Central Bank.
It was against these findings and in view of their negative impact on industries that the meeting was organized between the central bank, BEAC and the association of industrialists, SYNDUSTRICAM.
The Objectives and expected results
The BEAC – SYNDUSTRICAM meeting was aimed at building a partnership approach to provide appropriate solutions to the challenges and difficulties that persist in currency transfer operations by national industries, including members of the UKCCC. The meeting specifically served as a framework for:
– discussing the difficulties that industries encounter in the transfer of currencies;
– take ownership of the reforms and mechanisms put in place by the BEAC to provide a solution;
– explore the actions to be implemented to better take into account the specificities of national industries in the implementation of exchange regulations;
The BEAC – SYNDUSTRICAM exchange laid the foundations for a more future collaborative and close relationship between the BEAC and the industries through their union, Syndustricam.
The UKCCC Executive Director shake hands with the National Director of the Central Bank, Mr. Pierre Emmanuel NKOA AYISSI.
The following key participants were present:
- Syndustricam: Mr. Samuel NJANGA KONDO, President with bureau members.
- BEAC: Mr. Pierre Emmanuel NKOA AYISSI, National Director-Cameroon with key collaborators and regional manager.
- Others: APECCAM, Guests, Media at the opening
After the opening remarks by the President of Syndustricam, conversations centered around the realities of currency transfer challenges for industries by Syndustricam. BEAC gave a run down on the regulation of foreign exchange mechanism – the Issues, mechanisms, roles of actors, results and perspectives. There were exchanges with Mr. Pierre Emmanuel NKOA AYISSI, National Director BEAC-Cameroon and some resolutions and perspectives concluded. Mr. Nkoa made a presentation on ‘Currency transfers: What facilities for the industries’. Complete slides presentation on the UKCCC website.
The meeting was a rich exchange with genuine conversations and resolutions.
