Paul Fokam

Dr. Paul K. Fokam is President of the Afriland First Group and a leading Cameroonian economist and banker. He also serves as President of the Appropriate Development for Africa Foundation, President of the SAAR Insurance Group, Chairman of the African Global Business Facility, Manager of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and Board Member for British American Tobacco Cameroon and the Douala Port Authority. He joined the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa Board of Directors in May 2011.

Dr. Fokam's quest to alleviate poverty in Cameroon and Africa has been relentless. In 1987, a time when Cameroon’s economic outlook was suffering from among other things a generalized bankruptcy of banks, the young Dr. Fokam created Afriland First Bank under the name of Caisse Commune d’Epargne et d’Investissement. His rationale for creating this bank establishment resulted from the fact that in 1987, more than 60 percent of business activity in Cameroon was in the informal sector and therefore not accounted for in Cameroon’s Gross Domestic Product. Also the majority of people in rural areas did not have any reliable banking system and investors were not adequately prepared to meet production requirements. This was also made possible because the financial system was dominated by community lending groups and loan sharks. With these in mind, and with the understanding that the development of African is incumbent on Africans, Dr. Fokam created a banking institution that would provide microfinance credit to farmers and market women throughout the country. This micro-bank system now constitutes more than 50 village banks with more than 200,000 customers many of them women. Afriland First Bank has expanded significantly and is now one of the leading commercial banks in Cameroon with branches in more than 10 countries including the People’s Republic of China.

Dr. Fokam has also created the MC² Network with the aim of integrating rural zones in the new development process. The MC² are village micro-banks created and managed by members of the community in the respect of social and cultural values and with the technical assistance of Afriland First Bank and ADAF. The first MC² branch opened in September 1992. Today, the network operates 56 branches in all 10 regions of Cameroon with the main objective of providing efficient and appropriate financial services in a sustainable way.

Recognizing the need for pragmatic leadership in Africa and Cameroon in particular, Dr. Fokam has gone further in establishing the P.K. Fokam Institute for Excellence based in Yaounde. The Institute’s vision is to detect and build leaders among Africa’s youth through contributing top quality and relevant education and to significantly contribute to the emergence of a top brass of African leaders.

Dr. Fokam continues to diversify and has been involved in many sectors in Cameroon. Prior to Afriland, he worked as a property owner, an industrialist, an insurer and a television promoter and is involved with Vox Africa which broadcasts from London. He is a writer and a very successful essayist.