RESOLVING CONSUMERS DISPUTES WITHIN THE CAMEROONIAN BANKING SECTOR: A LEGAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The government of Cameroon like any other, from the inception of the modern banking system has strived to guarantee an effective protection of consumers of banking services through diverse means. This has been through the implementation of legal and institutional mechanisms of control aimed at ensuring strict compliance to banking ethics and available legislations enhancing fairness and equality in the dispensation of services. Within the banking sector, Cameroon's integration into regional and sub-regional blocks such as OHADA and CEMAC has paved the way for a plethora of Sub-Regional Legislations and Institutions such as the COBAC and BEAC to complement available pieces of national legislations in the protection of consumers of these Services. The government in its endeavor to ensure the availability of an adequate mechanism of protection of all consumers, in 2011 put in place Law No. 2011/012 of 6th May 2011 on the Legal Frame Work of Consumer Protection in Cameroon to add to the lots of existing legislations. Despite this laudable and worth applauding initiatives all aimed at protecting the rights of the consumers, banking consumers still encounter hardship due to the consistent violation of their rights by the professionals of the field. These difficulties have even skyrocketed in the last two decades with the advent of electronic banking and the involvement of nonfinancial institutions in the streams of banking services which makes difficult the effectiveness of available pieces of legislations thus given way to the continuous and persistent rise of dispute in the Cameroonian Banking sector. Based on these setbacks, this paper aims at unveiling the available legal redress to consumers of banking services who are prone to such difficulties.