Buea, Cameroon, December, 02 2007 - Clients of micro-finance institutions that closed down will soon be reimbursed, The President of the committee for the facilitation of training on micro-finance in CEMAC, RIM, Joseph Mbouombouo Ndam, has disclosed.

He made this statement at the end of the 2007 annual meeting of micro-finance experts organised by RIM in Yaounde from November 14 to 16. He said the meeting was to put order in the sector, which has been overwhelmed by embarrassing close down of some micro-finance establishments.

For clients of such establishments, Mbouombouo went on, there is need for patience while the Central African Banking Commission, COBAC, does its investigations and establishes substance.

COBAC, which has the mandate to accredit micro-finance institutions and to oversee the sector, is expected to recommend BEAC to disburse money only to those micro-finance institutions that fell short of embezzlement.

Hear him: "Clients money must be reimbursed. It takes a little more time to do that. They [clients] just have to be patient. COBAC needs time to carry out ample investigations to establish reasons why such and such institution closed down and then begin its reimbursement."

During the three-day assembly, micro-finance actors and operators were drilled on regulations governing finance in the CEMAC Sub-region and how to transform them into practice so that the public actually feel them as institutions capable of ameliorating their lifestyles.

Reasons For Collapse

Experts decried micro-finance institutions that accumulated large interests and could not give them out to clients in the form of loans. This, to them, greatly contributed to loss of enthusiasm towards micro-finance and the subsequent demise of some of the institutions.

It was within this premise that Mbouombouo recalled that the noble objective of micro-finance is to develop the individual's economy by contributing to the fight against poverty and social exclusion.

In another vein, COBAC, which ought to be constantly educating stakeholders in micro-finance and ensure dialogue with them is in serious human, financial and material resources handicap and thus have not ensured links with the institutions.

Measures such as institutional normative measures, have, however, been put in place to ensure that clients don't deposit today and come tomorrow to see that those micro-finance institutions have closed down.

Source : All Africa