A week after proposing a liquidity offer of 350 billion XAF (around 613 million USD) to commercial banks operating in the six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Chad) of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) increased this offer by 50 billion XAF (nearly 88 million USD) on March 24, 2026. It now stands at 400 billion XAF (around 700 million USD). This corresponds to the demand expressed by credit institutions during the liquidity offer on March 17, 2026. Certainly aware of its inability to meet this demand, the central bank decided to increase the amount of this other liquidity injection operation in the CEMAC banking system.
The upward trend in the appetite of commercial banks in the CEMAC for BEAC liquidity offers during the last liquidity injection operations indicates, upon analysis, an increase in credit demand by economic agents. This increase in the solicitation of liquidity offered by BEAC is observed, according to bankers, “when the volume of bank credit requested by clients exceeds cash availability”.
However, the current high level of liquidity demand remains significantly lower than that recorded in September 2025. During the second half of that month, a banking demand of 650 billion XAF (around 1.14 billion USD) was recorded. A month later, BEAC had first injected 700 billion XAF (around 1.23 billion USD), then 800 billion XAF (1.4 billion USD). As observed, since the beginning of 2026, these liquidity offers from the common issuing institute to the six CEMAC countries have halved.
