Gov’t, FIGEC seal deal to facilitate farmers’ access to financing.

Minister Gabriel Mbairobe signed on behalf of government while the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of FIGEC SA, Aubert André Tchikantio, signed on behalf of the financial institution.

The convention was signed within the framework of the Decentralised Rural Credit Project, PCRD, implemented by MINADER as part of a dynamic support to rural population in Cameroon. 
This project seeks to improve the living condition of rural population and strengthen micro-finance sector.

Minister Mbairobe said government, under the instruction of President Paul Biya, has made agricultural development one of the main drivers of structural transformation in the economy.

He noted that the country’s national sustainable development strategy places financial inclusion, the transformation of rural areas and the fight against poverty amongst the national priorities.

“The Decentralised Rural Credit project fits perfectly within this framework. Since its inception, this project has been working to strengthen the rural microfinance sector by establishing local financial institutions, developing financial products tailored to the realities of rural life, providing low-interest loans, building the capacity of stakeholders, and promoting agriculture and livestock farming,” he said.

The member of government assured that the agreement signed will further consolidate the momentum of the project that is already underway. 

Through the agreement MINADER via the PCRD project, has undertaken to provide FIGEC-SA with a mechanism combining repayable financial support for financing producers, as well as non-repayable support aimed at strengthening the human, technical, material and institutional capacities of these partners.

The member of government added that: “These measures will help to improve the mechanisms for analysing and managing agricultural loans, strengthen the risk management framework, develop financial products better suited to the realities of agricultural holdings, train staff and managers, improve working tools and promote better financial education for the benefit of our fellow citizens who are the beneficiaries”.

Mainstream gender, inclusion

Minister Mbairobe equally tasked FIGEC to commit to ensuring rigorous management of the resources made available to it, to guarantee the proper use of the facilitation funds, to provide effective support to producers, and to ensure that at least 40% of beneficiaries are young people and women.

“We call on FIGEC to commit to mainstreaming a gender perspective, to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities, to ensure equal opportunities in access to project support, and to take the necessary steps to remove any barriers that might limit their effective participation, in line with the project’s objectives,” he instructed. 

Enter FIGEC CEO

According to André Tchikantio, the partnership will help reinforce its resilience to financing the rural sector. 

Noting that agricultural producers are often confronted with the challenge of having collateral that guarantee their access to credit, the FIGEC boss assured that the new mechanism put in place will facilitate the granting of loans, enabling farmers grow their activities, and set up small farmers cooperatives to ease production transform to boost productivity.

Project present in six regions

The National Coordinator of the PCRD project, Nadiembe Emmanuel Ebune, explained that the project is currently operating in six regions of the country notably Adamawa, North, Far North, Centre, South and Littoral. 

The project also serves nearly 50,000 producers through a network of six cooperatives.

“As at 31 December 2023, the project had helped to mobilise more than 1.5 billion FCFA from rural banks and facilitated the granting of more than 1.2 billion FCFA in agricultural loans to producers,” the project Coordinator said during the event. 

Nadiembe stressed that the project, set up more than 30 years ago, was to respond to the weak access to financial services adapted to the reality of agricultural production and economic activities in rural areas. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3867 of Monday August 03, 2026