Cameroon’s Treasury raised a total of FCFA 49.8 billion on the BEAC public securities market during the week of October 16 to 20, 2023, we learned.
According to the operations report published by the central bank, these funds were raised through issues of 26-week fungible Treasury bills (BTA) (FCFA 39.8 billion raised out of FCFA 40 billion sought) and 52-week bills (the FCFA 10 billion sought were oversubscribed).
The weighted average interest rates for these transactions were 5.59% for 26-week BTAs and 5.85% for 52-week securities, for an overall average of 5.7%, well above the usual 3%. This rate is even slightly higher than the 5.67% average offered by the Cameroon Treasury on this market in September2023 but remains below the general market average, estimated at 6.29% that month.
Investor interest in Cameroonian bonds, which picked up again in September, continued in October, after the lack of interest seen at the start of the year. According to central bank data, the subscription rate for the 26-week BTAs was 99.80%, while 52-week securities were 140% oversubscribed. By way of comparison, the average subscription rates for this category of securities in Cameroon were 46.7% and 68.8% in June and August 2023 respectively.