ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the main features and operational modes of informal financial groups in Cameroon and their relative importance in the country's monetized economy. Cameroon's financial market shows the typical fragmentation observed in most developing economies. Formal financial institutions have failed to effectively mobilize voluntary savings or to provide significant credit services in rural areas. Interest revenues of nonrotating financial associations are either equally distributed among the group participants or in proportion to their accumulated savings according to commercial bank practices. A majority of all financial self-help groups (SHGs) surveyed were founded by indigenous members of the community. Local Cameroonian experts in agricultural finance claim that almost everybody in Cameroon belongs to at least one financial SHG. Farm women seem to be more active in financial SHGs than were their husbands due to their more substantial and steadier flows of cash income.
