(Business in Cameroon) - Outgoing money transfers from Cemac countries to the rest of the world have increased from CFA2,816 billion in 2018 to CFA10,120 billion in 2022, the Central Bank Beac revealed in a recent report on money transfers in the region. This means that in 5 years, the money used in foreign currency by private and public economic agents operating in the CEMAC to purchase goods and services, settle debts, transfer dividends, or make endowments outside the region has more than tripled.

Three activity sectors stood out, accounting for 67% of all authorized outgoing transfers in 2022. These are finance and insurance (26.76%), trade (25.73%), and the oil industry (14.20%). Operators in these sectors mainly used the resources to pay debt compensations on e-money and rapid transfer operations; imports of food, manufactured items, and refined oil products.

While the amount has clearly increased over the years, CEMAC economic agents constantly accuse the new exchange regulations of tightening trade with the outside world, particularly outbound transfers. The regulation in question, adopted in December 2018 and entered into force in March 2019, defines the organization, as well as the conditions and modalities for carrying out exchanges with the outside. It was decided during the extraordinary summit of CEMAC heads of state held in December 2016 in Yaoundé to replenish the community's forex buffers and ward off a devaluation of the local currency, CFA.

Anti-capital flight policy

To hit their target, Cemac countries have embarked on an anti-capital flight policy that requires economic operators to justify their transfers outside Cemac. Abbas Mahamat Tolli, the Beac Governor confirmed in 2017 that many outgoing transfers are illegal capital outflows. According to him, in 2017, nearly 40% of import applications were fraudulent.

In response to operators' criticisms of the new regulations, Abbas Mahamat Tolli said that the detractors are mainly those who find it difficult to justify their previous transfers, raising suspicions of capital evasion. Yet, to make things easiers for operators, the central bank suspended the rejection of transfer files “deemed not justified”, on June 23, 2021. According to the bank, economic operators can also be victims of the turpitude or internal policies of their banks. "Some Cemac banks indeed withhold the transfer files of strategic companies, making them believe that their applications had been rejected by the Beac, while they had never been submitted to the Beac," the central bank denounced in July 2019, during an information sharing meeting on the new foreign exchange regulations. The Beac had on the same occasion announced measures to stop this type of behavior and punish violators.

Aboudi Ottou