Tuesday 18 March 2014

RECCU-CAM asserts its legality



By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda
Renaissance Cooperative Credit Union Cameroon, RECCUCAM, has cleared the air over controversies about its legal existence.
                 
                            Cross section of RECCU-CAM officials at press confab at Ayaba Hotel
Against a recent communiqué from the Ministry of Finance listing RECCU-CAM amongst 84 credit unions allegedly operating without the approval of the government, the president of RECCU-CAM, Anye nee Bih Judith Tabifor, has affirmed that the Union of Cooperatives is legal and operating in respect of the laws and regulations binding cooperative societies in the CEMAC sub-region.
                 Exposing the error in the MINFI communiqué, Anye Judith said RECCU-CAM is a Union of Accredited Cooperative Societies and not a cooperative society as the MINFI circular erroneously claimed. She said RECCU-CAM was duly registered (Registration No. RSC/No NW/UCOOPCA/036/13/008 of May 30, 2013.) She added that the application for accreditation deposited at the Ministry of Finance indicated that the union was created to perform the duties attributed to such institutions according to article 14 of the CEMAC regulations on Micro-finance institutions.  
                Anye Judith noted further that they never saw the purported control team from the Ministry of Finance, adding that at the time of the said control the institution had neither offices nor staff to be controlled. She said the Ministry of Finance has acknowledged her mistake and is preparing an apology.
                Mrs. Anye made the clarifications at a press conference on March 10, 2014 at Ayaba Hotel. She used the occasion to also update the public on the circumstances which led to the disaffiliation of some credit unions from the Cameroon Credit Union Leaque, CamCCUL and which led to the eventual creation of RECCU-CAM.
                Addressing prying journalists, Anye Judith said the decision of the credit unions to disaffiliate from CamCCUL was purely economic and it was taken individually by the seven credit unions in their different general meetings. She noted that the decisions to disaffiliate were in conformity with article 11 of the Uniform Act on Cooperatives, adding that because they acted within their rights they cannot reconsider their decision.
                Recalling the shortcomings of CamCCUL which motivated their disaffiliation, the RECCU-CAM president lamented that against the principles of good governance propagated by COBAC and the Cameroon government, CamCCUL hierarchy kept extending and manipulating its mandate, in violation of regulations in force.
                She said in 2008 the CamCCUL Board of Directors extended their mandate from 3 years renewable once to 5 years renewable once and then in 2011 they changed it from 5 years renewable once to 3 years renewable twice. She observed that CamCCUL is operating in illegality as its revised Articles of Association have not been approved by the Department of Cooperatives/and Common Initiative groups of the MINADER up to this day. She said because of these and other reasons they had to break away from CanCCUL.
                Anye Judith who also doubles as the president of Azire cooperative credit union, Azziccul, equally decried the exaggerated engagement of CamCCUL in Fixed Assets, citing the COBAC report of 2011 which revealed that instead of the 100% coverage ratio stipulated for fsixed assets, CamCCUL managed only 43%.
                The reckless investment in fixed assets she noted is opposed to the institution’s mission of helping Credit Unions to grant many more Micro Credit Loans to the masses to improve their plight. The RECCU-CAM president regretted that the circa FCFA 1 billion which CamCCUL used for a single building with seven floors at the Bamenda Commercial Avenue could have been more useful in the hands of the local population.
                She added that despite the heavy fees paid to CamCCUL they cannot moderate their expenses in order to break even, reiterating that they have eroded the capital base of their organisations to the extent that they now carry a net loss of hundred of millions of FCFA in their books.


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