The Inspector at the Directorate of Community Development in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, MINADER, Assi Catherine has entreated credit unions to help agricultural cooperative societies by granting them loans to boost farming activities of their members.

This was during the 4th Annual General Assembly of the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League, CamCCUL that held recently at the Pastoral Centre, Bamenda.

Assi Catherine who represented the MINADER lauded the CamCCUL network for impacting the lives of about 20 million Cameroonians.

“In fact, the credit union movement which started in Njinikom sometimes in 1963 has stood the test of time and should be respected as a successful movement in the CEMAC zone,” Mrs. Assi remarked.

Earlier, while welcoming CamCCUL delegates to the 46th AGM, the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Vincent Nji Ndumu’s representative remarked that the role CamCCUL plays in the lives of the citizens of the Bamenda municipality cannot be over emphasized as over 80% of economic activities in the Bamenda City are thanks to loans from the CamCCUL network of cooperatives.

In his address to the delegates, the president of CamCCUL, Shey Musa Nfor appreciated the government for its sustained recognition of the poverty alleviation and rural development role that credit unions play in the lives of close to 20 million Cameroonians.

After the deliberations and following the high incidence of loan delinquency in the CamCCUL network, the Board of Directors and management were mandated to take urgent measures to put in place recovery strategies to curb the ill.

Moreover, the BoD and management were urged to urgently ensure the restructuring of some key policies of the network notably in the domain of lending and recovery, internal rules and regulations, money laundering amongst others.

On the issue of disaffiliation, members resolved and reiterated that credit unions wishing to withdraw their membership should do so in strict respect of the regulatory and statutory provisions in force and particularly the instructions of the Minister of Finance vis-à-vis the dispositions of the CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC regulations on micro finance activities.