(Business in Cameroon) – A delegation of executives from Cameroon-based CCA Bank was granted an audience in N’Djamena on Monday by Chad’s Minister of State for Finance, Budget, Economy, Planning and International Cooperation, Tahir Hamid Nguilin. According to a readout from the ministry, the two parties primarily discussed the opening of a CCA Bank branch in Chad.
The successful completion of the project, for which no timeline was specified, would mark CCA Bank’s first expansion outside Cameroon and make it the eleventh commercial bank operating in Chad. To establish itself in the Chadian banking market, CCA Bank will face competition, led mainly by market leaders Ecobank and Commercial Bank Tchad. It must also contend with the country’s very low financial inclusion rate. According to the regional financial inclusion strategy document for the CEMAC (Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa), Chad’s banking rate was estimated at just 5% in 2021, well below the sub-regional average of 12%.
CCA Bank is not the only financial institution eyeing the Chadian market. On May 11, 2022, after a meeting at the Ministry of Finance and Budget in N’Djamena, Célestin Guéla Simo, who was then the new CEO of Afriland First Bank, revealed the Cameroonian market leader’s interest in Chad. “Chad is a country with enormous economic potential. It is a market with promising growth prospects and a unique geostrategic position. With a young and dynamic population, the country represents a good risk for us to take,” he said at the time. However, no further details on that project have since emerged.
A Single Banking License
CCA Bank’s expansion project comes as the Central African Banking Commission (COBAC), the banking sector regulator for the CEMAC region which includes Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and the Central African Republic, has instituted a single banking license. Thanks to this new regulation, which took effect on January 1, 2025, banking groups with a license in one of the member countries can now open branches in others without needing to obtain new licenses, which is expected to facilitate the expansion of banking networks throughout the CEMAC zone.
Founded in Bafoussam in 1997, CCA Bank began operations in 1998 as a cooperative savings and credit society. It obtained a license as a second-category microfinance institution in July 2001 and gradually evolved into a universal bank in May 2018, following authorizations from local and sub-regional monetary authorities.
CCA Bank is the eighth largest bank out of 19 operating in Cameroon by outstanding loans, with a market share of 6.17%, and the fourth by deposits, with 8.05% of the market share as of March 31, 2025. As of December 31, 2024, the bank’s total assets officially stood at 837 billion FCFA ($1.37 billion), net banking income reached 53.6 billion FCFA ($87.7 million), and net profit was 19.1 billion FCFA ($31.2 million), a 46.7% increase from 2023.
Brice R. Mbodiam
