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The Rencam Story

The RENCAM Story

RENCAM was formed in 1994 by a group of Cameroonians in Reading, UK, who decided to follow the ‘tradition’ by coming together to form a financial Njangi. A Njangi is a Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROCSA). Prevalent in most of Africa and Asia, a financial ROCSA is a group of individuals who agree to meet to save and borrow together, where money is not idle for long but changes hands rapidly, satisfying both consumption and production needs.

The main reason for having a ROCSA is to enable individuals to benefit from the power of community rather than work in isolation. Such an organisation can only be successful if members have shared interests that bind them together(common bond), for example belonging to a tribe, profession, place of origin, or some other platform on which they all agree.

In addition to its ROCSA role, the Association is a self-help group that pursues the following non – financial aims:

  • Act as a forum for its members to physically meet and share some of life’s experiences and challenges, be it personal, social, academic, professional, economic, etc. It is within this framework that RENCAM members will seek and find opportunities to contribute to the success and long term development of the organisation.
  • Provide an emotional and psychological support to members in times of need, in the spirit of solidarity and with a sense of responsibility for each other.

After its 10th anniversary, RENCAM took the strategic decision to explore the possibility of serving its members better by creating a formal financial institution.

After extensive research, it became apparent that the only such financial institution would be a credit union as the latter is not too dissimilar to the Njangi model. It is within this backdrop that feasibility studies began a few years ago into the creation and running of our Credit Union.

Our Common Bond

“RENCAM Credit Union is open to Cameroonians, foreign spouses of
Cameroonians and descendants of Cameroonians who are ordinarily resident in the UK.
Membership is also open to other nationals living in the UK, who have interests in the
Cameroonian heritage”