(Business in Cameroon) - In the framework of its new economic and financial program [2021-2024] with the IMF, Cameroon has committed to coercing state-owned firms into paying the on-lending or guaranteed loans they received. 

In its March 2022 country report focused on Cameroon, the IMF explains that public enterprises that benefited from those loans will “have to fulfill their contractual obligations as specified in the on-lending or guarantee agreements.” “To this end, the government will initiate discussions with the public enterprises concerned to devise a plan for the collection of amounts due on maturities settled by the government on their behalf and to set the terms for effective tracking to allow public enterprises to make debt service payments on on-lending or loans guaranteed by the government in a timely manner and avoid accumulating new arrears. For new financing, the government will introduce more security and take measures to collect debt service payments on time,” the report reads. 

According to the latest data from the national sinking fund CAA,  the only outstanding guaranteed debt as of November 30, 2021, was the result of old agreements since the government granted no new guarantees in recent years. As of that period, the outstanding guaranteed debt was  XAF23.1 billion, representing 0.1% of GDP. The Port Authority of Douala (PAD) accounted for XAF1.8 billion, against XAF7.2 billion for the DPDC and XAF14 billion for KPDC.  

It was down by 7% month-on-month because KPDC repaid XAF1.7 billion of principal. 

Still, according to the CAA, state-owned firms’ direct debt (not guaranteed by the state) is XAF862 billion, representing 3.5% of GDP; 53.1% of that debt is owed to foreign partners against 46.9% for domestic partners and suppliers. 

Sylvain Andzongo