Ever since Monday, August 8, 2016, four men, including two senior officials of la Banque Internationale du Cameroun pour l’Épargne et le Crédit (BICEC) are incarcerated at the New Bell central prison in Douala, the economic capital. Local media reports opined that the four men were arrested on charges of forgery and breach of trust. The BICEC officials were also accused of embezzling billions of CFA francs from the bank.

The General Directorate of BICEC from its headquarters in Douala has issued a statement in an attempt to give the public a frank, candid and thoughtful key into understanding the truth about the affair.  The management of BICEC revealed in the communique that an internal investigation was conducted within the bank. Following this investigation, BICEC filed a complaint to the Cameroonian judiciary.

The BICEC statement further stressed that the bank as an institution does not comment on judicial proceedings which are in progress. The shareholding of BICEC is mainly composed of Groupe BPCE (68, 5%) and the State of Cameroon (17, 5%). Groupe BPCE, 2nd largest banking group in France, with over 36 million customers, obtained in 2015 a net income above € 3 billion and equity of 66 billion euros. BICEC also addressed a paragraph of the press release to its customers that it is worthy of their trust.

La Banque Internationale du Cameroun pour l’Épargne et le Crédit (BICEC) was created in 1997 from the ashes of the defunct BICIC.  La Banque Internationale du Cameroun pour l’Épargne et le Crédit (BICEC) represents one of the largest banking networks in Cameroon with 39 branches, 340,000 customers in all regions of the country and more than 750 employees.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai