After 2 years of waiting, Bank of Africa (BOA) finally received the all-clear from the Central African Banking Commission (COBAC), the regulatory body of the banking sector in the CEMAC zone, to open a branch in Cameroon.

“In Cameroon, we have just received our approval from COBAC, and we also have the authorisation from Bank Al-Maghrib, the central bank of Morocco”, Amine Bouabid, MD of BOA, just revealed.

Even though BOA is not very communicative on the date for the launch of its operations in Cameroon, it is now official that three major Moroccan banking groups will be battling in the Cameroonian market in the coming months. These are Attijariwafa (Société Camerounaise de Banque), Banque Centrale Populaire (Banque Atlantique Cameroun) and BOA.

BOA Cameroun will have an initial capital of FCfa 10 billion. An analysis of the data provided in its 2014 annual report, as well as the memo for its listing on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) based in Abidjan, indicates that the Bank of Africa group will own 76% of its Cameroonian subsidiary.

For the moment, very few details have been released on the main partner or partners of the Bank of Africa group, who will thus own 24% of the capital of the future Cameroonian subsidiary.