(Business in Cameroon) - The Bank of Central African States (Beac) issued a note presenting the bank credit landscape in the Cemac during the second haft last year. Despite the 9.29% YoY increase in credit activity over the period, SMEs remained the minor beneficiaries.
"An analysis by beneficiary shows that bank loans are still mainly allocated to large companies," Beac said in its bulletin of statistics on the costs and conditions of credit in the CEMAC in H2 2021. In detail, during the period under review, large companies "concentrated (...) 62.19% of the credit while SMEs (15.53%), individuals (16.27%), other legal entities (3.49%), and finally public administrations and decentralized communities (2.52%) received lower allocations. According to Beac data, banks granted more credit to individuals than to SMEs.
However, between the end of 2020 and throughout 2021, local banks, thanks to the support of international financial institutions, have opened lines of credit specifically dedicated to SMEs hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, guarantee funds have helped set up guarantees to promote the distribution of these credits, which have not had much impact on the ability of SMEs to obtain bank financing.
BRM