Cameroon seeks 150 billion F for projects

After the experiences of 2010 (200 billion F) and 2013 (80 billion F), the State of Cameroon is again borrowing by public offering on the domestic financial market. This time, the amount requested is 150 billion F.

On Monday, officials from the Ministry of Finance will conduct in Douala the official launch of this operation called "EMR 5.50% net 2014-2019".

Characteristics of the transaction

To mobilize 150 billion F, the State of Cameroon will issue 15 million bonds (long-term government bonds). The price of a bond is set at 10,000 F. But, to natural or legal persons wishing to apply, it will purchase a minimum of 10 bonds, the equivalent of 100,000 F, according to the information note of that borrowing. The interest rate is 5.5% net per year. According to the same document, the subscription period runs from 24 November to 23 December 2014. Subscriptions are open to the Agents facilities, including CBS Cameroon, arranger of the transaction.

Projects to be financed

The purpose of this loan is to finance projects included in the 2014 state budget. This is a comprehensive, projects in the field of Energy (40.8 billion francs), road infrastructure to be built or rehabilitated (61.3 billion francs), port projects (25 billion F) and the participation of the state in public enterprises (21 billion F). In detail, we find the Lom Pangar dam which should receive 15 billion F of this loan as well as the dam Memve'ele. The distribution also includes a budget of 10.8 billion francs for the construction of the dam Mekin. As for the Kribi port industrial complex which also appear in the list, it is expected at the end of the loan, to inject 25 billion F.

However, the largest share of the envelope should go asphalting of structuring road network, with over 27 billion F planned. This is after the presentation of the project made in the Circular, the construction of 766 km of road between the countries of ECCAS and ECOWAS in general and between Cameroon and Nigeria. Objective: To increase and strengthen cooperation and exchanges between the two countries, economic levers of the two sub-regions. The state also plans to tap into this loan to finance its participation in five public companies like the Cicam (2.04 billion francs) Camair-Co (3 billion F), EDC (2.5 billion F), the MATGENIE (2.533 billion F) and Camwater (11 billion F).