The process of securities dematerialization has never been suspended in Cameroon, according to a statement by Richard Evina Obam, MD of the Autonomous Depreciation Fund (CAA) who is charged with the conservation, coordination, control and supervision of dematerialization operations in Cameroon.

In a press release published on September 4, the manager stated that several issuing companies and their shareholders have fulfilled their legal obligations under the dematerialization process. “With regards to companies that do not comply with requirements, they are invited to get in line as the process and the remuneration of the related services continue unimpeded, and no contrary indication has been made, either by the Financial Markets Commission, responsible for regulating the process, or by the CAA”, he said.

As to modernize its financial system and bring it in line with international standards for financial securities businesses, Cameroon has been dematerializing real estate and financial securities issued or in circulation in its territory since 2014.

This process, which does not affect the principle of ownership anonymity for shares and other securities, consists in substituting their physical holding by an immaterial conservation, represented by a registration in an account opened in the name of the owner, and maintained either by the issuing company or its agent for registered securities, or by an approved custodian account holder for bearer securities.

To this end, issuing companies were required to codify and register their issue(s) in an account with the CAA before May 5, 2018 and shareholders were required to deposit the physical securities they hold with the issuing company or with custodian account holders at the latest on April 24, 2018.

Sylvain Andzongo