(Business in Cameroon) - A report on banking loan in Cameroon, recently published by the Bank of Central African States (Beac), revealed that credit institutions that operate in the country handled 130,032 new loan requests for a total amount of XAF3,372.11 billion, in the first half this year.

The figure is up 8.37% compared to the previous half-year when the amount was XAF3,111.78 billion. As regards market shares, Societe General Camerooon is the biggest with 30.86% of market share, ahead of Afriland First Bank (14.69%), Bicec (10.91%), Attijariwafa’s local unit SCB (8.52%) and Ecobank Cameroon (8.30%).

Most of the loans granted over the period, Beac says, went to the productive sector, which accounted for nearly 88.16% of credits, or XAF2,972.73 billion. Large companies captured 73.62% of the total volume while SMEs took 14.54%. As for individuals, although they submitted 103,744 out of the 130,032 loan applications, they only received just 4.52% of the aggregate loan amount.

Other beneficiaries of bank loans, namely public administrations and legal entities, other than large companies and SMEs, all captured  XAF247 billion, or 7.32% of the total financing during the reference period.

Sylvain Andzongo