SMEs stifled by "higher" bank interest rates

Between September 2013 and September 2014, the national credit Committee of Cameroon, on Saturday January 13, 2015, found "a significant increase" in credits granted to businesses.

In this evolution of loans to enterprises, Cameroonian SMEs are having very good account, with an increase of 48% of the volume of appropriations received, while deposits of these companies increased by 25% over the same period.

But, this concern of banks towards SMEs hides another reality, which is the issue of high-interest rates on loans to these structures usually presented as the main engine of the country's economic growth.

Indeed, according to the credit of the Cameroon Committee, "SMEs support interest rates highest on the credits they receive from banks, compared to the rates applied to large companies", a situation that the bankers explained as resulting from the lack of structuring SMEs, reality likely to increase credit risk.

In order to escape these exorbitant bank interest rates for credits, which are moreover more affordable than the usury limit charged by microfinance institutions, SMEs generally close to tontines.

According to statistics of the Ministry of Finance, about 190 billion Cfa francs is circulating in these generally constituted groups of members of the same family, friends, neighbours of the district.