(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon’s housing bank -CFC- reported it has granted 317 loans to its clients, totalling nearly CFA14.5 billion in 2022. According to data compiled by the Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public and Para-public Sector Enterprises (CTR), this amount represents just one and a half times the annual volume of disbursements by the CFC (CFA10.2 billion) over the 41 years from 1977 to 2018. During this period, Cameroon’s housing bank had granted loans totalling only CFA420 billion.
The CTR had previously noted the “relative weakness” of the CFC’s role in promoting real estate in Cameroon in its 2019 report on public enterprises. To enhance the effectiveness of this public enterprise, the CTR suggested a revision of the “CFC’s economic model, enabling it, like other similar institutions in African countries, to increase its resources and expand its scope of activity to mass-finance housing and meet a significant portion of the demand.”
Demand for housing in Cameroon is high, particularly in the two main cities of Douala and Yaoundé. Property owners in these cities, citing bad faith on the part of some tenants, have imposed stringent rental conditions, such as requiring tenants to pay up to 12 months’ rent upfront.
In this context, a revision of the CFC’s business model could not only boost access to secure land, a significant barrier to real estate development in Cameroon but also contribute to addressing the housing deficit officially estimated at around 2 million units.
However, in this revised business model, Cameroon’s housing bank should consider the competition from private entities, which may intensify soon with the support of significant financial partners such as the IFC, a World Bank subsidiary dedicated to private sector financing. In July 2019, Sergio Pimenta, then the vice president of the institution, expressed interest in the real estate sector in Cameroon during his visit to the country, stating, “In the case of housing deficits, the IFC will bring in companies that will build more housing and financial institutions that will establish mortgage plans to enable the population to benefit from these homes.”
