Already active in West and East Africa, the London-based group will now expand into the CEMAC region as a credit bureau (BIC).

CreditInfo Group, a British multinational specializing in credit information services and credit risk management, has obtained a license to operate as a credit bureau (BIC) in the CEMAC region. The approval granted to its subsidiary, CreditInfo Central Africa (CICA), was announced through Decision No. 142 of November 25, 2025, signed by the Governor of the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).

“I am pleased to remind you that this decision represents an important step in the ongoing modernization of the credit information sharing ecosystem in the CEMAC region, which is essential for better credit risk management and the improvement of financial inclusion,” said Yvon Sana Bangui, Governor of the BEAC, in a letter dated December 1 to Sidimohamed Abouch Iki, Chairman of the Board of CICA.”

According to correspondence reviewed by EcoMatin, the bureau, whose headquarters is based in London, will be responsible for producing creditworthiness reports and credit scores for individuals and/or legal entities, and will provide value-added services such as Instant Decision Making (IDM), business information services, and shared KYC, in compliance with personal data protection laws.

In the medium term, this institution is expected to establish a disaster recovery site within the CEMAC region no later than June 30, 2026; submit its new policies and procedures (approved by the company’s Board of Directors) to the Central Bank no later than June 30, 2027; open operational branches in the other member states (CAR, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Chad) no later than December 31, 2028; and achieve coverage of at least 60% of all institutions subject to COBAC regulations by December 31, 2028.

Present in West Africa since 2016 (the year it obtained its UEMOA license), CreditInfo Group claims to have collected more than 20 million credit agreements through Creditinfo West Africa over a five-year period (by 2020), and reports that over 90% of UEMOA-regulated financial institutions were sharing data through its credit information system in 2023. According to the 2023 BCEAO annual report, the credit information system database (managed by Creditinfo West Africa) recorded strong growth, rising from 30,000 clients in 2016 to more than 15.1 million clients by the end of 2023, comprising both individuals and businesses. This volume covers a large share of formal borrowers in the UEMOA region.

Thus, entering the credit market in the CEMAC region represents both an expansion challenge and a real opportunity, given that this segment of banking activity is highly dynamic. In the first quarter of 2025, loans granted by banks in the CEMAC region reached approximately 12,403 billion CFA francs (around 22.1 billion USD), representing an annual increase of +17.2%, according to the BEAC. This credit volume is mainly driven by Cameroon (64%) and Gabon (12.6%).

It should be noted that CreditInfo Group, which operates 30 regional credit bureaus across Africa, Europe, and Latin America, is required to recruit and train local staff to ensure skills transfer and to empower its CEMAC subsidiary to operate independently from the group. It must also review its policies and procedures in order to adapt them to local constraints, particularly in terms of overall IT risk and cybersecurity, customer information and awareness, and data protection.

Source: ecomatin.net