(Business in Cameroon) - On June 12, 2014 in Yaoundé, some 40 journalists gathered within the Cameroonian Economic Press Association (Presse Eco), were invited to a training session on “The Cameroonian Treasury’s new financing mechanisms” held by the General Directorate of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance.
“Over the last few years, reforms have led our country to innovate in the area of budgetary financing, not only in terms of fiscal and customs reforms, but also with new fundraising instruments such as bond loans and the issuance of Treasury bills. These concepts, which are for the most part new, need to be understood by the media and the public at large,” stated the president of Presse Eco’s executive office, François Bambou (photo), explaining the reason why the training session was arranged.
For the Ministry of Finance, as expressed by the Secretary General of this ministerial department, training members of the media “is a component of the over-arching programme that aims to familiarise the general public and journalists with the concepts of financial markets.” This is all the more important, he emphasised, as bond loans and Treasury bills are “financing mechanisms that call on public savings are new here” and would be beneficial to be shared with “all levels of society so that they may be informed as to how they can participate in the financing of our economy.”
In a single day, forty Cameroonian and international journalists who participated in the training exercise were informed about “the State’s determination of financing need and the development of the calendar for issuing securities on capital markets” and “the Cameroonian experience in government securities issuance on capitals markets” since 2010.