“We are the leader in Micro Finance Sector in Cameroon”

-Tienchou Jonas, General Manager of the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League CamCCUL.

Tienchou Jonas, the General Manager of CamCCUL has stated that the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League remains the leader in Micro Finance Sector. Cooperative Credit Unions affiliated to CamCCUL he emphasises remain the most trust worthy in Cameroon and proof of their stability is the fact that CamCCUL has been there since 1968. He was speaking recently after the 49^th AGM of the network in Kumba. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante of Cameroon People Magazine.

Excerpts

Tienchou Jonas GM CamCCUL

Some quarters have intimated that the Northwest Region is in the lead as far as growth of Cooperatives is concerned. How far is this true and if true, then why this trend?

 I think the Northwest Region leads in growth in terms of the number of Credit Unions and other forms of Cooperatives followed by the West Region and Southwest before you can talk about the Littoral and Center Regions. This is due to the dynamism and culture of the population. Before cooperatives came, these people were already grouping themselves together and saving their money. You already had what is locally referred to as Njangis and Tontins. That is the base of the creation of Cooperatives in Cameroon. In terms of Credit Unions, Northwest has the highest number of Cooperative Credit Unions followed by the Southwest Region and West Region in the third position. Because what we notice is that we have mostly branches of the Credit Unions from the Northwest and the southwest Regions in Douala and Yaounde. For example if you take the External Branches of Credit Unions in Douala you will have close to 46 branches and 43 in Yaounde. So in terms of number and even membership the North West comes first, South West second and Littoral third.

What were those key things that held your attention during this year’s Annual General Meeting that just took place?

We had our 49^th Annual General Meeting of the CamCCUL Network in Kumba on Saturday June 24. Before then we had an enlarged sitting with a group of about 100 Credit Unions. That’s the biggest in Cameroon and we discussed their strategies for the coming year and took stock of what happened in the past year 2016. During the General Meeting we reviewed the performance of the Credit Unions and the performance of chapters because we are organised in chapters. For example in the North West we have the Bamenda Chapter, Fundong Chapter, Kumbo Chapter and Nkambe Chapter. In the West Region we have one chapter; the Bafoussam Chapter. In Littoral we have the Douala Chapter. In the South West we have three Chapters; Fako, Kumba and Mamfe Chapters. We were simply trying to analyses the performance of the various Credit Unions and the Chapters. The performance analyses were done using certain criteria. It was done in terms of growth, service mobilisation, in terms of deposits, in terms of loans, net results among others. In the classification following performance analyses Bamenda came first, Douala Chapter came second and then Fako Chapter in third position. The key issue was to permit Credit Unions to take note of the problems they have in carrying out their activities; for example in loan granting, loan recording and delinquency. We also touched issues on personnel because if you have good personnel then you should expect good results. Capacity building was therefore one of the focus. In general, the result was positive.

Your sector serves like the pivot of the economy. How optimistic are you considering the results that you see on the field?

Of course in terms of growth we are growing and if you don’t grow you will die. We are the leader in Micro Finance Sector in Cameroon and we will fight to remain on top. It is difficult to stay at the top but easy to climb to the top so what we do is we develop our services. CAMCCUL started in 1968 but the first Credit Union was created in 1963 so we think we are in the market. Many other forms of Cooperatives come and after one or two years they disappear but we are there. I want to assure you that we are guaranteeing sustainability with what we are putting in place.

You certainly have a key message that you will want to send out to interested parties

Credit Unions affiliated to CAMCCUL is a safe place for Cameroonians to keep their money because we act like a watch dog in these various Credit Unions. Some may have problems but a majority of the Trade Unions are performing. They should have confidence in Credit Unions affiliated to CamCCUL and they should also watch out because many Credit Unions imitate our logo while they are not affiliated.

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