(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon's International Bank of Savings and Credit (Bicec), local arm of French BPCE, is presented in a Beac recent report as the top grantor of banking credit over the last 6 months of 2018.

According to the document, Bicec alone controlled 36.66% of market shares ; followed by Société Générale of Cameroon (21.43 %). Together, the two subsidiaries granted 58.09% of credit amount. Société commerciale de banque Cameroun (SCB), subsidiary of Attijariwafa, and Commercial Bank Cameroon (CBC), which saw their market shares grow over the period, granted 9.34% and 9.03% of credit, respectively.

“Afriland First Bank and Ecobank Cameroun which used to be major credit providers during the first half 2018 only provided 6.18% and 3.39%, respectively in H2 2018,” Beac noted.

In general, all financial institutions operating in Cameroon received 517,486 credit requests (402,690 overdraft cases and 106,468 of depreciable loans) for a total of XAF2,887.75 billion in H2 2018. The amount is down 14.3% compared to that of the previous half-year which stood at XAF3,372.11 billion. Also, 2018’s whole year credit request, XAF6,260 billion, is 7.11% lower compared to 2017 when credit requests amounted to XAF6,739 billion.

Let’s note that Banks are major credit grantors in Cameroon, providing 99.2% of monies.

S.A