The aggregate balance sheet total of banks in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cemac) increased from 14,092.8 billion FCFA to 15,213.3 billion FCFA from 2019 to 2020, according to official data published by their central bank. municipality (BEAC). This increase (of approximately 8%), marked in the volume of activities, is perceptible in almost all of the 6 countries of the region, and concerns all the major balance sheet items.
The data indicates, in fact, that deposits collected have more than increased in relation to loans (10.4%, once morest 7.0%). This situation, it is said, is attributable to the increase in corporate and household savings during the period of the health crisis linked to Covid-19.
“Non-contractual sight deposits (including passbook accounts) improved by 9.3% to stand at 8,498.0 billion FCFA, or 74.0% of deposits collected. Similarly, term deposits increased by 17.7%, to 1,850.6 billion FCFA, or 16.1% of the total volume of customer deposits”, specify the same sources.
It should be noted that, moreover, deposits from public enterprises, the private sector and public administrations rose by 16.4%, 11.1% and 6.3% respectively.
As a reminder, the CEMAC financial system includes, at the end of 2020, 51 banks located in Cameroon (15), Congo (11), Chad (9), Gabon (7), Equatorial Guinea (5) and Central African Republic (4).