Members of the Central and West African Banking Supervisory Committee rounded off their 15th annual meeting last Friday on a satisfactory note. Members of the African banking supervisory body, code-named, “Committee of Banking Supervisors of West and Central Africa (CSBAOC)”, have described as satisfactory the path covered by the committee in supervising banking activities in the sub-region to live up to expectation with international norms and be apt to withstand economic disasters like the recent global economic meltdown. The CSBAOC officials made the encouraging statement last Friday at the end of the committee’s 15th annual meeting in Yaounde.

It is apparently thanks to what participants at the annual meeting described as stringent supervisory mechanisms that the recent global economic crisis did not have a direct effect on the CEMAC zone. In his capacity as the President of the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC), the Governor of the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), Lucas Abaga Nchama, host of the Yaounde meeting, said an investigation carried out showed that the crisis did not have a direct effect in the sub-region. Meanwhile, a second investigation, he added, is near completion to determine the indirect effects of the economic disaster in the CEMAC sub-region.

To better strengthen banks to stand subsequent financial shocks, CSBAOC members resolved to step up the social minimum capital required to set up a financial institution. In the CEMAC sub-region, for example, the minimum social capital for banks now stands at FCFA 10 billion while those desiring to set up micro-financial institutions are required to provide at least FCFA 2 billion. In a news conference to round off the two-day 15th annual meeting, the Secretary General of COBAC, Idriss Ahmed Idriss, said the decision to review the minimum capital was to pre-empt dangers that might arise from banks not being viable to contain financial risks.

One of the outcomes of the Yaounde conclave was the election of Idriss Ahmed Adriss to the presidency of CSBAOC for a period of one year. He told journalists that his priority will be to strengthen and follow up the supervisory rules engaged by his predecessor, the process of ratifying the committee’s charter as well as the management of the committee’s website, points that were under discussion during the meeting.