National Assembly : Banking Secrecy Bill Scrutinised

Members of the Committee on Finance and Budget of the National Assembly on March 22, 2022 first scrutinised the bill to ratify Ordinance No. 2021/4 of 29 December 2021 to amend and supplement some provisions of Law No. 2020/18 of 17 December 2020: Finance Law of the Republic of Cameroon for the 2021 financial year. The Minister of Finance Louis Paul Motaze defended the bill in the Committee in the presence of the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Assemblies Bolvine Wakata. Government in the explanatory statement said that Article 49 of the law capped the cumulative amount of public debt at FCFA 650 billion, of which FCFA 350 billion for concessional loans and FCFA 300 billion for non-concessional loans. Despite this, on the strength of loan agreement signature authorisations granted by the President of the Republic, the Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT) had already signed nine concessional loans to the tune of FCFA 427 891 533 500 and three non-concessional loans amounting to FCFA 146 807 821 414. This consequently brought the concessional loan limit overrun for FCFA 77 891 533 500 and a margin of FCFA 153 192 178 586 for non-concessional loans.

The projected volume of new State commitments at the end of December 2021 stood at FCFA 349 638 822 010. Therefore to enable the country address its current socio-economic challenges through the implementation of various transformational projects, FCFA 276 billion was added to the State’s debt ceiling by ordinance. This then, brought the concessional loans amount to FCFA 626 billion and that of non-concessional loans to FCFA 300 billion. Minister Louis Paul Motaze defended the second bill in the Committee on Finance and Budget which was that Governing Banking Secrecy in Cameroon. As ...