SME’s Bank : CEO Loses accreditation over mismanagement claims
Agnès Ndoumbè Mandeng, Chief Executive Officer of the Cameroonian Small and Medium size Enterprises Bank (BC-SME) has been harshly sanctioned by the Central African Banking Commission (COBAC). The Subregional Institution has withdrawn its accreditation from the Director General of BC-PME taking away her authority to run this banking institution.
Cobac reproaches the CEO of governance errors and serious breaches of the texts relating to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Contacted by our colleagues from the EcoMatin newspaper, the Bank did not wish to react but an internal source indicates « that their Managing Director is accused of governance faults and serious breaches of the texts relating to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing ».
Other source close to the regulatory authority, the management of Agnès Ndoumbè Mandeng has led BC-PME in the list of systemic risk banks. Which can ignite the Cameroonian banking system and the Cemac zone. « Her appointment was a casting error. She never managed to get this bank started, » our source tells us. Indeed, the bank shows a negative result of 2.010 billion FCFA in 2022 against -2.218 billion a year ago, a decline of 9.3 %.
In other words, the deficit of this publicly funded bank continues to widen due to managerial errors. « Loans are granted any way, prudential ratios are not respected ; fanciful recruitments with mismatches between the profiles sought and the positions within the bank, » adds our source who reassures us moreover that the CEO has been notified of her withdrawal of accreditation at the end of a contradictory process. « She has had several interviews at Cobac which she knows well given that she herself has been a commissioner of this institution ».
The BC-SME is almost « bankrupt » with barely 7 years of operation on the counter. As part of the economic program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the period 2017-2020, the Cameroonian state has made the commitment to restructure this banking institution. On August 31, 2015, COBAC had noted the violation of the standard relating to the representation of the minimum capital. That is to say that BC-PME did not have own funds that it must be able to justify at any time.
Three years later, on August 30, 2018, Cobac opened a disciplinary procedure against the Cameroonian SME Bank and its managers, including the CEO, Agnès Ndoumbé Mandeng, for non-compliance with the terms of an injunction dated October 16, 2017. For the IMF, the economic model of this SME bank has so far remained very elusive.
The BC-SME is thus left without a DG, but his deputy, on the other hand, remains in office, spared by the sanctions. At the Ministry of Finance of Cameroon, the positioning battle for the position of Director General is raging.
Sorelle Ninguem
