Closure of some of the Douala agencies of the microfinance institution, First Investment for Financial Assistance (FIFFA), has brought a wave of untold worries among its clientele in the economic capital. Clients who turned up early yesterday September 10 at FIFFA agencies in neighbourhoods such as Village and Ndokoti were irked when its doors remained closed one week after government announced moves to normalise the situation.

Local administration has deployed military officers to all FIFFA agencies. Most baffled and lamenting clients are sent away and loitering around its premises is forbidden in a seemingly tacit move to avert any manifestation. A client, who opted for anonymity after fruitless efforts to recover even a part of his savings, summed up her ordeal simply as "unfortunate" and one "signalling little or no hopes."

Nonetheless, the Akwa agency was opened but there was a dearth of activity at all cash desks.

A staff of the microfinance institution said since August 4, 2012, it has managed to pay a fraction of savings to civil servants but cannot sustain the effort due to a reason he refused to mention. A gendarme officer, in his category as a civil servant, explained that he received FCFA 50, 000 at the beginning of August, but decries the fate of most of his savings which he accuses the financial institution for failing to reimburse him in spite of repeated promises.

Apart from the fact that its staff would re-echo its payment plans to the media as well as its clientele, critical questions as relating to the breakdown are simply waived off. Where a staff attempts leniency towards a reporter, the phrase "Go to our headquarters in Limbe!" is quickly repeated and it has become a catchphrase in the institution. Rather they accuse the media for amplifying what has now become prejudice with its clientele as if to usurp the professional function of the reporter.