Cameroonian banker Jean Paulin Fokam has received the Commander of the National Order of Merit award from Guinean President Alpha Conde for his contribution to the economy.
Conde posted an entry on his Facebook page about the awards ceremony, the 237online.com news site reported. “For his exceptional contribution to the fight against poverty in Guinea, I decorated with the rank of Commander of the National Order of Merit, Dr Paul K. Fokam, international sponsor of the MC2 network and founder of PkFokam Institute of Excellence,” Conde wrote.
Fokam has been referred to as the second wealthiest person in Cameroon. He is the founder of Afriland First Bank, a full-service bank based in Cameroon, with subsidiaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Liberia, South Sudan, Sao Tome and Príncipe, Uganda and Zambia.
Last year, Conde inaugurated the National Investment Bank of Guinea with Afriland First Bank’s technical support. The investment bank was established to help boost economic development in the country. Fokam was appointed the founding head of the investment bank’s administrative board.
Recently, Afriland First Bank has been marred by scandal after allegations surfaced that Israeli mining mogul Dan Getler carried out millions of dollars in transactions through the bank’s subsidiary in the DRC, despite being under U.S. sanctions.
Whistleblowers within the bank released information about the transactions to the media after the U.S. government lifted the sanctions against Gertler.
A Kinshasa court later sentenced them to death in absentia for disclosing confidential banking information.
Although the whistleblowers had already relocated to Europe with their families for safety reasons, the court judgment drew the ire of the international community.
Activists then successfully called on the U.S. government to reinstitute the sanctions.