Structure, Performance et Portee des Institutions de Finance Rurale (PDF)

It has been recognized that small farmers have little or no access to capital from institutional sources in Cameroon. As part of general efforts to provide small farmers with credit on a self-sustaining and permanent basis, credit cooperatives and small rural banks were established in the mid to late 1980’s following the closure of the government’s formal agricultural institution FONADER. This study analyses the rural bank sector of Cameroon by examining the operational and financial performance of the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League (CamCCUL), its outreach, its economic effects on borrowers, and the opinion of its clients and management staff regarding key operational issues
and problems. The main hypotheses are:
- With time the CamCCUL network has acquired substantial experience and is playing an important financial intermediation role within rural areas;
- Due to its financial performance, the CamCCUL network and its affiliated institutions can be considered as sustainable institutions;
- The network is playing an important role in the poverty eradication process in Cameroon;
- CamCCUL has had positive effects on borrowers’ income and standard of living;
- Credit programmes of CamCCUL have positive effects on rural financial markets in Cameroon, i.e. particularly in reducing interest rates.