(Business in Cameroon) - As part of the reform of the Société nationale d’investissement (SNI – National Investment Company), the secular arm of the Cameroonian State in the creation or acquisition of stake in companies, the government should solicit funding from the World Bank, the African Development Company or Proparco, we learned from good sources.

These lending institutions should enable the launch of the first investment fund in development at SNI, called Fonds national d’investissements stratégiques (Fonis – National Strategic Investment Fund). This investment vehicle, based on the revelations recently made by the Cameroonian Minister of Industry, will be specialised in financing the government’s major infrastructure projects. For its launch, we learned from the same source, Fonis requires funding of approximately FCfa 450 billion.

As a reminder, the SNI reform also plans the launch of the Fonds d’appui au développement industriel (Fadi – Industrial Development Support Fund), which will be specialised in capital-risk, financing mechanism which consists in buying shares in companies still fragile or in difficulty, and to withdraw once they have reach a certain balance or a comfortable development threshold.

BRM