After Ownership Change, Alios Finance Loses Top Spot in Cameroon Credit Market

Commercial banks continued to dominate lending activity in Cameroon during the first quarter of 2026, accounting for 99.65% of all credit extended to businesses and households, compared with just 0.35% for financial institutions, according to a report from the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).

Within the financial institution segment, however, the credit market saw a significant reshuffle. “Société Camerounaise d’Équipement (SCE) recorded a 41.05% market share, a sharp increase from a year earlier. Alios Finance, which had long dominated lending among financial institutions, ranked second with a 25.83% market share, while Crédit Foncier du Cameroun accounted for 21%,” the central bank said in its report on lending rates across the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).

The figures show that between January and March 2026, leasing company Alios Finance Cameroon lost its leadership position to SCE, a lender that specializes in equipment financing for individuals.

SCE’s market share more than doubled over the period, rising from 19.26% at the end of March 2025 to 41.05% a year later, an increase of 21.79 percentage points. Alios Finance moved in the opposite direction. Its share fell to 25.83% in the first quarter of 2026 from 41.27% a year earlier, a decline of 15.44 percentage points. BEAC’s report does not explain the change in market leadership. However, the shift comes about a year after Alios Finance Cameroon changed ownership, suggesting that the company may be going through a transition period that temporarily affected lending activity.

On April 30, 2025, Credaf Group, a financial holding company controlled by Ivorian businessman Serge-Aimé Bilé, announced the completion of its acquisition of Alios Finance subsidiaries in Central Africa—Cameroon and Gabon—as well as in West Africa, including Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, after securing all required regulatory approvals.

The new owner immediately outlined plans to build a pan-African financing group around Alios Finance’s core business: leasing, a financing solution widely used to help companies acquire productive assets and equipment.

To support that strategy, Credaf unveiled an ambitious roadmap that includes expanding financial products, accelerating digital services, strengthening financial and institutional partnerships, and increasing financing for businesses.

In Cameroon, however, the early phase of that transition has coincided with a decline in market share, allowing SCE to take the lead. SCE began operations in 1963 as a state-owned financial institution that helped households acquire domestic equipment through loans and direct sales programs.

The company later expanded into cash-advance products for civil servants and domestic and international money transfer services. In 2014, a group of Cameroonian entrepreneurs acquired the company and improved its operational and financial performance through a network of 12 branches covering all 10 regions of the country.

Since 2016, SCE has also offered leasing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, complementing its traditional financing activities.

Brice R. Mbodiam