» The farmers voice
Focus | 15 Feb 2006
“Maybe the ministry was blind or biased…”
Forzi George Ngu, Director, BERDSCO, Buea
What is your reaction to the closure of Benevolent Community, Education and Rural Development Society?
BERDSCO is one of the oldest NGOs in Cameroon and it was founded under the liberalisation laws of 1990. If you look at our history, we are people with a landmark.

So, do you think there was an error somewhere by closing you establishment?
There was a very big error. The present place where NGOs are licensed is the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation. It is from this tutelage that NGOs spring up. A ministry without that tutelage does not have powers to close an NGO. What is happening is that an NGO is created to do development issues, to effect change in the society and the next aspect is that if you want to go into other activities, for example like health, you need to obtain another licence.

So why are you offering a savings and loan scheme without that authorisation?
The history of BERDSCO intervening in microfinance activities is a bit older than the laws in Cameroon. We are not victims but we have done wonders in Cameroon. We have been able to change the rural world and bring the very poor to become micro entrepreneurs in Cameroon to which they are banking in formal banks. We have been able to change our staff from different fields to bankers. Some of my staff are working with banks. That is why I am saying that the history of microfinance is very new in Cameroon. As an older man in the field BERDSCO needed consultation at the time that any law was going to be made. Maybe the ministry was blind or biased in actually informing us to allow us partake in what was taking place in the country.
According to COBAC, MFEs are categorised into three parts. One operates to serve all their members, the second is microfinance with extension of outreach without projects and the third is microfinance with projects. We took ourselves to government to inform it that we needed to abide by the new laws and we applied as a category three establishment. We have not been discovered as someone digging a forest somewhere thinking that no one owns it. Our application might have had a deviation somewhere which could have been rectified instead of just publishing our name which is not a good treatment to us. When you use the word “close” BERDSCO, I wonder what powers you have to close it. The only simple thing the Minister should havedone was to tell us to desist from our microfinance activities and comply with the law but we went to government ourselves and informed it that we were operating here and needed a licence but surprisingly we were just suppressed without any consultation.

Are you now going to close or you will continue?
Our plan is to have a micro finance department and the NGO department dealing with developmental issues under the shelter of BERDSCO. We do not want to create a record and lose the trend of the record. We do not feel that we can change the name of Benevolent Community, Education and Rural Development Society.

Are those who saved their money in your establishment at any risk of losing their money?
Article three of category three of MFEs does not accept savings. We pay back savings.

How has the announcement closing BERDSCO affected your activities?
I feel that it has simply given people information but has not destroyed even an inch of BERDSCO. My members understood that we ourselves went to government for a licence and that is why government has picked us.
There are many MFEs operating in the South west Province without licences but were not closed. Someone who went for a fiscal stamp is punished while another with a fake fiscal stamp is free. Is that justice?



Interviewed by Joy Ful and Harry Yemti