(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian treasury is planning to raise CFA155 billion on the Beac public securities market over the fourth quarter of this year.

According to the provisional transaction timetable, the Treasury expects CFA70 billion through five issues of fungible Treasury bills (BTA). These are short-term government securities (52 weeks at most) that usually enable the coverage of one-time cash needs. The remaining amount (CFA80 billion) will come from five other issues of fungible Treasury bonds (OTA), which are long-term securities (from more than 52 weeks to 10 years) usually used to finance infrastructure projects. The Ministry of Finance indicated that Cameroon is eyeing maturities of 4, 5, 6, and 7 years for the OTA issues. The operation will be done through domestic syndication: a mechanism, validated by the central bank in 2021, which consists of a government issuing public securities through a group of primary dealers (SVT) formed as a syndicate and headed by a lead manager.

This procedure has the particularity of guaranteeing the success of fundraising operations, insofar as the parties agree on the terms of the loan and the amount to be made available by each primary dealer upstream, even before subscriptions are open.

The new bond issue program was launched after the Head of the state empowered the Minister of Finance on August 23, 2022, to raise an additional CFA200 billion, through the issuance of public securities, within the framework of the 2022 Finance Law. This brings the total amount sought by the Cameroonian Treasury on the Beac market in 2022 to CFA550 billion.

Brice R. Mbodiam