Gov’t acknowledges RECCU-Cam, fears for future of CamCCUL

The crisis that led to the breakaway of some cooperative credit unions from the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League- CamCCUL to form another umbrella body known as the Renaissance Cooperative Credit Unions in Cameroon- RECCU-Cam, is well over two years old, but the supervisory structure of finance organizations, the Ministry of Finance is yet to fully digest the meaning of economic liberalization.

Although recent moves at the Ministry of Finance indicate that officials at the Division in charge of the micro finance sector are gradually coming out of their preconceived interpretations of the causes of the crisis, efforts being made to turn the hand of the clock are being quickly put paid to; they are generally seen by those involved as too little, too late.

For much of the month of October 2014, the Directorate General of the Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation at the Ministry of Finance invited the presidents and other officials of some eight credit unions that are part of the RECCU-Cam network to Yaounde to conduct a succinct diagnosis of the trouble that led to their disaffiliations from CamCCUL that until one year six months ago, was the only existing umbrella body for the control and supervision of the activities of credit unions in Cameroon.

During the meetings with individual credit union officials, the Chairman- Ndzana Ndouga, who is the Head of Division for Micro Finance at the Directorate General of the Treasury, Financial and Monetary Cooperation at the Ministry of Finance, adopted a much sober attitude; a departure from the initial vitriol that Division made show of each time complaints were raised about the way of doing things at CamCCUL.

In the words of Mr. Shang Ivo, President of the Kimbo Police Cooperative Credit Union who was received on the 10th of October, 2014; “They were very welcoming and we noticed that the Minister of Finance was misinformed about the problem we had and I am sure that were we to meet the Minister in person, he could understand even better”.

MINFI’s Mea Culpa A copy of the agenda of the consultative meetings that was procured by this reporter, gives to entertain the idea that the Ministry of Finance has come full circle to recognize that it mismanaged the CamCCUL saga, with the officials allowing themselves to be misled to the point of imagining the issue at stake was no longer that of proper management of a financial institution, but a battle for control of financial resources by politicians of the opposition and those of the ruling party.

Naturally, they had to side with the person that claimed to be representing the interests of the ruling CPDM and who was purportedly being chastised for doing so in an area overwhelmingly bought to the cause of the opposition.

The document reads; “Before now, the conception in MINFI had been wrongly perceived that it was highly political until MINFI has seen big politicians of various parties refuting the allegations and the realities being that of manipulation of the law for personal interest”.

It states further; “MINFI has understood the loopholes that CamCCUL’s Articles of Association have and will call for an ad hoc committee made up of three persons from CamCCUL, MINFI, MINADER and RECCU-Cam to meet and revise CamCCUL’s Articles of Association especially in; representation in terms of economic power, dues payment to represent a percentage of net income- not on shares/savings, restriction on investment on landed property”.

These issues and many others not mentioned are the same worries that were expressed way back in 2009 by Azire Cooperative Credit Union and a good lot of the other cooperative credit unions that today operate under the banner of RECCU-Cam.

While the shouts were loud and clear that article 23 (2) of law N0. 92/006 of 14/08/1992 on mandates of members of boards of directors was violated in 2008 to enable some power hungry individuals to extend their mandates beyond the prescribed time frames, MINFI officials said; “on ne change pas l’équipe qui gagne”, even if they were wining the Cameroonian way.

It is thus surprising today to find on the same document a statement that; “…the present Board of Directors of CamCCUL has realized its errors and seeks redress”. On this aspect, the officials of RECCU-Cam who made it to Yaounde, overwhelmingly ask to know if that means the people are ready to resign so that orthodoxy could return to the house, or the plan is to go the African way; that since I have manipulated and I am already in power, come and let us share?

MINFI Fears for CamCCUL Officials at the Ministry of Finance hold that “CamCCUL is the biggest micro finance institution in Sub Saharan Africa and should not be divided”, and that “Disaffiliated credit unions constitute 40% of the CamCCUL network and if allowed to effectively break away, it will cause some financial setbacks to CamCCUL”, adding that, this is the reason “invitations have been extended to eight credit unions to enable the Ministry of Finance examine the level of grievances and possible ways of ameliorating the conditions”, perhaps for a possible return to CamCCUL.

The Case for Economic Liberalization The fears being expressed by the Ministry of Finance could well be judged as legitimate, given that they are grounded on facts that are verifiable. But the truth is that if RECCU-Cam represents only 40% of the CamCCUL network, then there is very little or nothing to worry about. Up till now, CamCCUL has remained the only apex organ for the over 200 credit unions in Cameroon, with a consolidated savings and deposits of about 80 billion FCFA. Since the affiliates make deposits to CamCCUL, it is obvious that CamCCUL holds a lot of money from the credit unions. It is thus clear that from about 80 billion CFA F total shares/savings of the masses, CamCCUL can be holding about 25 billion CFA F.

This means creating another organization like RECCU-CAM which holds some 40% of the total shares/savings of the network (about 30 billion CFA F), CamCCUL will have to pass over to RECCU-CAM part of the money she is holding for credit unions. According to RECCU-CAM officials, CamCCUL needs to pass over slightly over 5 billion CFA F to RECCU-CAM, staying with well above 24 billion CFA F and that leaves the body still as powerful as ever.

From every indication, these finance officials have not considered the interest of the common saver down the village in their frenzy to pump up CamCCUL once more, neither have they considered the organizational setup for cooperative societies contained in the now OHADA Uniform Act on Cooperatives ratified in December 2010.

If the common saver was considered in their thinking, they would have been quick to realize that the formation of many other unions like RECCU-CAM means grouping the credit unions in their areas of concentration into unions thereby bringing the services offered by CamCCUL nearer to the people and also spreading the risk of the members losing their money if it remains centralized in one hand.

Furthermore, the current competitive environment is already yielding the most desired fruits to the poor members who only wish to better their lots. Today, the RECCU-Cam network has drastically brought down the interest rate on loans to the point where at Azire Cooperative Credit Union, loans are sold at 1% and 1.3% at Ntambeng Cooperative Credit Union, and the trend is the same for the rest, whereas on the side, loans still go for at least 1.5% or more.

Such a development augurs well for the economy of Cameroon as loans are becoming more attractive, with low interest rates, repayment shall be less a problem, bringing down the level of loan delinquency, boosting investment and of course generating more wealth through job creation. The tax base in these circumstances shall also be widened and the multiplier effect on the economy cannot be undermined.

The Way Forward All the officials of the credit unions that took part at the meetings are resolute, that although no conclusions were arrived at, they made it clear to the Ndzana Ndouga Commission that there is no turning back from where they are.

“Pour tout les efforts que vous déployez maintenant, vous cherchez midi à14 heures”, this is the substance of the message the President of Azire Cooperative Credit Union, retired Colonel Tamambang Simon put across to the MINFI officials, meaning what is happening now is too late.

The message was reechoed by the President of Ntambeng Cooperative Credit Union, Munandam Valentine when he said; “the dance according to the members of our general assemblies is forward, so no one is going to dance backward”, a position corroborated by his peers of Bafut, Santa, Bambili and Mbatu.

But as Colonel Tamambang put it, “No one should ever say never; but if it happened that our general assemblies decided to validate a return to CamCCUL, a thing that is very unlikely, then there should be pre-conditions and the main one shall be that let all those who have previously spent over six years as board members step aside. This is a position the people there cannot accept, meaning there is never going to be a deal”.

RECCU-Cam members appear simply to be aligning with Jackson Brown when he wrote; “Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts”.