(Business in Cameroon) - In order to revive the Douala Stock Exchange (DSX), the Cameroonian government is expected to soon list new public and parapublic companies. This was announced by Finance Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey when speaking with members of the business community at the 6^th Cameroon Business Forum (CBF), the sharing platform for private and public sectors with the aim to improve the country’s business environment.

Although he did not reveal the names, number or timeline for these new companies’ to be listed on the DSX, the Finance Minister stressed that the new listings will be done via the public sale of shares in these companies to “partially or completely remove” State involvement.

Cameroon is preparing to restart the process initiated in 2006 with the listing of Société des eaux minérales du Cameroun on the DSX. The experiment was replicated in 2008 with the sale of State’s stake in Safacam via the DSX and again in 2009 with Socapalm. Nine years later, only these three companies are listed on the Cameroonian financial market, although the government had planned to list 10 companies over a five-year period.

With the announced arrival of public and parapublic companies on the DSX, the Finance Minister hopes to “encourage private companies of growing sectors (energy, banks, insurance, agro-industry) to mobilise the financial market.”