MINFI launches treasury bonds to raise 150 billion FCFA.

According to Yaouba Abdoulaye, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Finance, who stood in for the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, during the launching in Yaounde on Wednesday, 14 June, the bonds are being issued in four tranches, running from June 13 to 30.

The first tranche, amounting to 40 billion FCFA, will attract an interest rate of 5.80 percent, and will mature for repayment over a period of three years.

The second tranche, amounting to 40 billion FCFA, will also attract an interest rate of six percent, and will have a maturity period of four years.

The third tranche, amounting to 50 billion FCFA, will attract an interest rate of 6.75 percent. The maturity period for this tranche is over a period of six years.

The fourth and last tranche is meant to fetch the government 20 billion FCFA, and will attract an interest rate of 7.25 percent, with the longest maturity rate running over a period of eight years.

The Minister Delegate said the bonds have a nominal value of 10,000 FCFA; and will be listed on the sub-regional stock exchange; known in the French language as, Bourse des valeurs Mobiliers d´Afrique Centrale, BVMAC.

Where the money goes

Minister Yaouba Abdoulaye announced that the funds raised would be used for the structural transformation of the national economy; and the development of human capital in line with the contents of the 2023 state budget, which is also in conformity with what is enshrined by the government in the strategic document for national development 2020-2030, SND-30.

The money will also be channeled to the promotion of job creation and the systematic insertion of more and more excluded Cameroonians into the national fabric of the economy.

Even more, the funds are meant to spur the effort to improve governance; accelerate the decentralisation process, and improve the strategic management of the state.

The Minister Delegate specified that the money will also aim at improving delivery in key sectors like provision of safe and clean drinking water to the population, for which 20.5 billion FCFA has been designated.

Public works will take some 85.5 billion FCFA; urban development, 15 billion and transportation, 14 billion FCFA.

Others are the reconstruction of crises-stricken regions of the North West, South West and Far North; for which an allocation of 15 billion FCFA has been designated.

Balance sheet of previous exercises

The Minister Delegate proceeded to give a resume of what the government has done so far since it started raising money through public sale of treasury bonds.

He told journalists that government was able to rehabilitate the Memve´ele hydroelectric dam, construct the Lom Panga hydroelectric dam, and complete a similar project at Mekim.

Away from hydroelectric dams, the Minister Yaouba Abdoulaye said government also completed thermal electricity projects, all in its attempt to guarantee energy supply both in quality and quantity, since this is critical in the task of transforming the industrial structure of the economy. 

Therefore, a central gas terminal was constructed at Kribi, home of the Deep Seaport in the Ocean Division of the South Region.  

Over the last ten years also, government executed other giant projects including supply of water to the city of Yaounde and its environs; construction of a new bridge over the River Wouri, in Douala, and the electrification of some 166 villages around the country.

Other projects included the opening of critical corridors like the Bamenda-Bachuoakagbe-Ekok road; Garoua – Boulae-Ngaoundere; Figuil-Magada; Sangmelima-Djoum-Mintom; the Yaounde-Douala highway; Yaounde-Nsimalen; and the Kribi-Lolabe  Road, among others.