The rumour according to which one of the leaders in African capital investment, headquartered in Tunis, the company AfricInvest, has received no approval to operate in Cameroon, found an answer on 21 September 2016 through the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey.

In reality, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Finance, there was a confusion due to the similarity in names. A company with the same name is really at fault but this is not AfricInvest, founded in 1994 and based in Tunis, which has among its shareholders respected organisations such as the Dutch bank of Development FMO, the Belgian Development Agency, Proparco, the subsidiary of AFD dedicated to the private sector, the European Bank of Investment, etc.

Minfi rather talks about a local company wholly created by Cameroonians, called AfricInvest but also known as “Pan African Investment and Crowdfunding Company”. This company, which pretends to be a financial investment organisation, with offices in Douala-Akwa and Yaoundé, has not been approved. The Head of the Ministry of Finance adds that “this structure is falsely collecting important deposits from the general public for investments which it promises to pay back with an interest rate of 10% per month, thus 120% on a yearly basis!”

Alamine Ousmane Mey also warns that “the monetary authority is calling the attention of the public to the risks inherent in making operations with this company who has been neither approved as a microfinance establishment, nor as an investment fund or private equity investment company”. Minfi thus has no responsibility in the eventual losses which could result from transactions with this company.

In Cameroon, the real AfricInvest, based in Tunis, is rather getting ready to take part in the capital increase of the microfinance establishment called Crédit Communautaire d’Afrique (CAA).