(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, has revoked the licenses of 33 microfinance institutions dotted in 7 out the ten regions of Cameroon. On Wednesday July 17, Ousmane Mey published the list following decisions taken between 2010 and 2012, the French Language daily, Le Jour.

Reasons for the decision revolve around fraud and out lawlessness-non respect of defined rules. Generally, these decisions are part of a crackdown, the ministry took years back to clean up the sector. 

Sources in the ministry told Cameroon Tribune another list of more than 30 MFIs will be published soon. Control teams are hard at work on the field.

Fear has gripped clients of these intuitions as word goes round that their coffers are empty, a nagging concern. But, our source said shareholders and managers of these intuitions could be charged for misuse of corporate assets or breach of trust in case of an insufficient balance, quoting the law on microfinance.

With regard to those whose salaries were paid through these MFIs, the Minister said that “the ministry stopped passing salaries of civil servants through these institutions in 2010.”

Biz Finance PLc, one of the suspended 33 MFIs was already close for three years. Several MFIs in Cameroon collapse soon after opening their doors, leaving poor families, the bulk of their clientele entrenched in misery.

Adventurers and people of bad faith have taken advantage of less tough conditions to open a microfinance outfit. Our source admits these loop holes exist but said reforms are on the way. “The Ministry is aware of deficiencies in the requirements for entry into the profession, especially in the control. This is why it has proposed to strengthen the conditions for access to the profession of microfinance,” he said.