Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
This is the way the Cameroon Government was also supposed to treat Amity Bank.
COMMERCIAL BANK CAMEROUN, CBC, which is one of the commercial banks in the country, was created by the Fotso Group whose founder was the business mogul and multibillionaire, Fotso Victor, now of blessed memory. Since the Law does not permit that one person, a single business or business group can set up a commercial bank, a few other shareholders had to be brought into the CBC project. But the Fotso Group in reality owned over 80 % of the shares of CBC.
The Pioneer Board Chair of CBC was Yves Michel Fotso, the son of the business magnate (Fotso Victor), who was assisting the father to run part of the huge Family Business. The General Manager of CBC was being appointed by the Fotso Group, or better still by Yves Michel Fotso.
CBC initially was doing well and even expanded to the point of creating subsidiaries or affiliates in some countries, for example in Sao Tome and Principe. I (Uncle Joe), was in fact one of the journalists who in 2005, that is almost 20 years ago, was invited to travel to the small African country of Sao Tome and Principe, for the inauguration of a subsidiary of CBC in that country’s capital, Sao Tome. It was a grandiose event, personally chaired by the President of that country, with Yves Michel Fotso siting by his side. In fact the inauguration ceremony was scheduled to be part of events of Sao Tome and Principe’s independence day celebration, that was attended by two other African Heads of States, including the President of Mozambique.
Arrest Of Yves Michel Fotso
Unfortunately, the Board Chair of CBC, Yves Michel Fotso, was at one point (December 1, 2010) arrested and incarcerated for alleged embezzlement of public funds, when he was General Manager of the defund Cameroon Airlines, CAMAIR. Along the line, CBC reportedly had liquidity problems, and the Central Africa Banking Commission, COBAC, which is the regulator of the banking sector in the Central Africa Sub – region, or better still in the CEMAC zone, stepped in to restructure the bank. COBAC appointed a Provisional Administrator to manage CBC during the period.
It should be noted that COBAC normally carries out the restructuring of a bank in collaboration with the government of the country. At the end of the period of restructuring of a bank that had liquidity problem, the bank is opened to a new private investor to bring in funds to revive the financial institution, and becomes the new majority shareholder. COBAC however ends at the stage of restructuring a bank, and is not involved in the stage of looking for a new majority shareholder. It is the Government that controls that stage.
State of Cameroon Became Majority Shareholder Of CBC!
Meanwhile curiously enough, in the case of CBC, it was not a private investor but rather the Biya Government that in the name of the State of Cameroon, pumped in State funds as new capital into CBC. Thus the State of Cameroon, in reality the Biya government, became the new majority shareholder of CBC, and owned as much as 87 % of the shares of the bank, that was initially owned by the Fotso Group.
The Government said that the Fotso Group that created CBC, no longer had any shares in the bank. Since then, it is the Government that has been appointing the Board Chair and General Manager of CBC.
Was There A Mafia To Take Over CBC?
There have been questions as to why when it came to CBC, it was instead the Government, in the name of the State of Cameroon, that put in the new capital after the restructuring of the bank by COBAC, to become the new majority shareholder. Why did the Government then not open CBC to a new majority shareholder from the private sector to come in, as was normally supposed to be the case?
It would be recalled that after the restructuring of CBC, Government authorities accused the imprisoned Yves Michel Fotso, Pioneer Board Chair of the bank, as the principal person that was culpable for the liquidity problem that CBC suffered. But Yves Michel Fotso and his lawyers did not only reject the accusation as spurious, but even raised doubts over the allegation that CBC had a liquidity problem. Rather, Fotso insinuated that the allegation was the handiwork of a mafia group in the Biya regime, which manipulated the government to ‘steal’ CBC from the Fotso Group, for their selfish interests.
Huge Unpaid Debts
Yves Michel Fotso and some of his friends apparently collected huge sums of money from CBC as loans. As aforementioned, CBC was actually created by the Fotso Group, with Yves Michel Fotso as the Pioneer Chairman. The General Manager of CBC was in principle appointed by the CBC. But it was Yves Michel Fotso as Board Chair, who in reality either did the appointment or influenced the appointment, and the tendency for him was allegedly to appoint or recommend somebody who would be a stooge to him.
Yves Michel Fotso allegedly got loans from CBC to follow up his private businesses. It should be noted that though he was running part of his father’s businesses, he also had his own private businesses on the side. Yves Michel Fotso also reportedly intervened for some of his friends who were in business, to obtain big loans from the CBC. There is one for example that obtained a huge loan of 3 billion francs CFA from CBC, following the intervention of his friend, Yves Michel Fotso, to invest in a new business with some foreign partners, which unfortunately crumbled.
When CBC ran into financial difficulties and COBAC intervened, a list of big debtors of the bank was established. The name of Yves Michel Fotso as well as the names of some of the friends for whom he had intervened to obtain loans from CBC, were prominent among the big debtors.
Bad, Ungrateful And Treacherous Friends
But strange enough, those ‘friends’ of Yves Michel Fotso, who had not yet repaid the huge loans they got from CBC thanks to his intervention, claimed that he collected the money from them, or that they repaid the loans to him, instead of to the bank. It was alleged that there were times that when Yves Michel Fotso did not have enough money to follow up his private businesses, he would either get a loan from CBC or call some of his friends in business who took loans from CBC thanks to his intervention, to borrow him some money, and would say that he would repay the money to the bank as part of their loans repayment.
Some of those ‘friends’ also claimed that whenever they had some money and decided to go and repay part of their loans at CBC, they would inform Yves Michel Fotso. But they alleged that he would instead collect the money from them, and say that he had some business deals to transact, and that he would repay the money to CBC. They all claimed to have ‘repaid’ all the loans they obtain from CBC to Fotso, before his imprisonment.
Yves Michel Fotso who on his part strongly rejected the allegations that were made by some of his so called friends against him, accused them of taking advantage of his imprisonment to tell terrible lies against him, in a bid not to pay back their debts. A lot of doubts and questions were in fact raised about the allegations that were made by Yves Michel Fotso’s so called friends. There was the possibility, that Fotso could have collected or borrowed some money, from some of his friends that took big loans from the CBC, to follow up his private business< But it could not have been true that they ‘repaid all the loans they took from the bank to him. Many observers and analysts even raised questions as to how somebody could borrow money from a bank, and instead repay to the Board Chair. More so, Fotso’s friends did not have any credible document to show, as evidence that they ‘repaid’ the loans they got from CBC to him. Normally, the Government was supposed to hold all those debtors to repay their debts to CBC.
Curious Reactions By Cameroonian Authorities
But curiously enough, Cameroonian authorities accepted the allegations that were made by Yves Michel Fotso’s friends who took huge loans from CBC and had not repaid, that they ‘repaid’ all the money to Yves Michel Fotso. A very controversial decision was then taken by the authorities to add all those unpaid loans, to the loans that Yves Michel Fotso owed CBC. The Cameroonian authorities then claimed that the huge amount of the total loan owed CBC by the Yves Michel Fotso, had completely wiped out the money that the Fotso Group invested in CBC. The authorities thus controversially concluded that the Fotso Group no longer had a franc in the capital of Commercial Bank Cameroun.
Some sources even alleged that the controversial allegations that was made by some friends of Yves Michel Fotso that they ‘repaid’ all the huge loans they got from CBC to him, were made in complicity with some authorities who were involved in the alleged deal to get the Government to grab the CBC for their selfish interests. Those so called friends of Fotso, were allegedly assured that if they made such allegations, their big debts to the bank would be annulled.
Bretton Woods Opposed To Gov’t’s Management Of CBC
Meanwhile, knowing the scandalous record of the Biya regime in financial matters, the Breton Woods Institutions, that is, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, were from the very first day against the fact that the State of Cameroon had become the majority shareholder (87 %) of CBC, and above all, that the Government had thus taken over the management of the bank.
The Bretton Woods Institutions have thus since been mounting pressure on the Cameroon Government to sell a majority of the shares the State is holding in CBC, to any credible financial institution or investor interested in the bank, for it to become the new majority shareholder or principal promoter of CBC.
Government Finally Accepted / New Majority Shareholder Expected
After all the resistance, the Cameroon Government finally accepted the demand of the Bretton Woods Institutions to leave the management of Commercial Bank Cameroun, to a private investor. It should be noted that the pressure on the Government became unbearable, especially at this time that the IMF is so involved in Cameroon, or better still with the Government. So the Government finally announced that CBC has opened its doors to get a new majority shareholder to replace the State of Cameroon.
The process to get a new majority shareholder for CBC is going on. There have some media reports that Access Bank, NSIA (insurance company), and a number of others are interested in in CBC, and are vying to become the new majority shareholder of the financial institution. For now however, the question as to who, or better still, which company will become the new majority shareholder of CBC, has no answer as yet. So, for now, it’s a matter of wait and see.
When It Came To Amity Bank – — –
Meanwhile, this is what the Government was supposed to do to Amity Bank Cameroon, after it was restructured by COBAC, That is, the bank would have been opened to a new majority shareholder to come in. That would not only have protected the original shareholders, that had no hand in the liquidity problem that the bank suffered, but iit would have above all maintained the bank as a Cameroonian financial institution. That is what is in the process of happening to CBC,
Unfortunately when it was Amity Bank, once the pride of Anglophones, the Government or better still the then Minister of Finance, Essimi Menye Lazare, scandalously decided to instead get into deal with an Ivorian Group, Atlantic Financial Group of Ivorian billionaire, Bernard Kone Doitingue, to completely takeover the bank, and turned it into its affiliate in Cameroon. And so Amity Bank Cameroon was transform into Banque Atlantique Cameroun, an affiliate of Atlantic Financial Group. The Cameroon Government even ignored a ruling by the CEMAC Court, which declared that the decision to handover Amity Bank to the Ivorian Group was both wrong and illegal.
By Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Website: www.thementornews.com
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Email: djpefok@yahoo.com / djpefok13@gmail.com
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