Government commissions new management of NFC Bank.

Installing the team on Monday, July 28, in Yaounde, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, traced the road that government had trod with the NFC Bank, the provisional administration and other stakeholders for more than a decade culminating with the installation of a new management.

The minister recalled that the bank stood the risk of being liquidated due to insolvency before the government, working in collaboration with the Central African Banking Commission, COBAC, waded in to salvage the situation. 

It started with the government virtually buying over the bank and assuming all its assets and liabilities by paying from the public treasury the sum of 24 billion FCFA.

Government then proceeded to put in place a restructuring plan which a provisional administration had to implement. Government and COBAC settled on Julius Berdu Manjo as the provisional administrator, assisted by Tata Fokwen.

The decision to avoid liquidation, the Minister said helped to stabilise not only Cameroon’s but the sub regional banking sector. 

He stated that the restructuring plan incorporated a symbolic purchase of the bank, assuming responsibility for bad debts, cleaning up the bank’s balance sheet, complementing insufficiency in active engagements, recapitalisation and sending out capital by the state.

The restructuring plan was approved during an extraordinary general assembly before being forwarded to COBAC for final approval during its ordinary session that held in Libreville on 17 December, 2019.

The structure of the share capital of the bank at the moment shows that the state has 99.93% of shares valued at some 9,992,700,000 FCFA; with other actors holding 0.07% share capital valued at a modest 7,300,000 FCFA.

Work of provisional administration

Julius Berdu Manjo, the provisional administrator told the audience that his team would not have achieved any success without the unwavering support from key collaborators. 

He said key the actors include, the Prime Minister, Head of Government, the Minister of Finance, the COBAC and faithful customers whom he described as historic actioners.

Thanks to all of them, Manjo said it was possible for he and his team to pull NFC Bank out of troubled waters.

For the Governor of the Bank of Central African States, BEAC, without the determination and high-level intervention of the government of Cameroon, NFC Bank would not have been salvaged.

He disclosed that the personal intervention of Louis Paul Motaze, in his capacity as the Cameroon’s Minister of Finance, was very decisive in achieving success all through the period the provisional administration was in place.

The Central Bank Governor applauded Motaze’s constant presence in sub regional financial matters, alluring that the minister’s omnipresence posture reinforces hope in the sub regional banking sector, and remains a testimony that the government of Cameroon accords priority to building a solid financial system for the entire sub region.

The BEAC boss went on to disclose that after intervention by the government of Cameroon during the troubled times, NFC bank deposits rose by 41% in barely one year raising the capital base to 137 billion FCFA. 

Gross credits also rose by 7%; to stand at 99 billion FCFA. While total balance virtually doubled to stand at 192 billion FCFA; with net profits that had been at a minus since 2017 rising to 13 billion FCFA over a period of eight years.

The Central Bank Governor then called on the incoming team to stick to the rules and capitalise on the gains to lay a more solid foundation for NFC Bank in the shortest possible time.

He added that the new team has barely two years to prove itself, after which hierarchy institutions will come to evaluate their performance.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3519 of Wednesday July 30, 2025