Digitalisation of Public Treasuries: what are the stakes for the digital economy in CEMAC?.
Digital transformation is gradually affecting all sectors of the economy. Public administrations are also affected by this development, particularly in the management of public revenues and expenditure. For Public Treasuries, digitalisation thus represents an opportunity to modernise financial operations, but also a broader challenge for the development of the digital economy in the CEMAC region.
As citizens and businesses adopt electronic payments, the issue is no longer just about digitalising public services. It is also about allowing these new usages to integrate into a secure, accessible, and interoperable payment ecosystem.
Why digitalise Public Treasuries?
The digitalisation of Public Treasuries primarily responds to issues of efficiency and accessibility.
The ability to remotely pay taxes, duties, bills, or other financial obligations simplifies procedures for citizens and businesses and limits the constraints associated with physical payments. It can also help improve the traceability of operations and secure public financial flows.
But digitalisation is not simply about replacing a cash payment with an electronic payment. It implies rethinking payment circuits so that they can integrate with the digital financial practices already developed in the sub-region’s economies.
This is particularly the case when users have different means of payment: bank accounts, mobile wallets, or other electronic instruments.
Interoperability, an essential issue for public payments
This diversity of instruments brings out a central issue: payment interoperability.
A digitalised payment system cannot fully produce its effects if the various actors operate in isolated environments. Banks, payment institutions, mobile money operators, administrations, and other actors must be able to interact smoothly and securely.
In CEMAC, this logic is at the heart of GIMAC’s action. Through GIMACPAY, the regional infrastructure allows interoperability between different actors and payment instruments. In particular, the platform supports services that allow the payment of duties and taxes from a mobile or bank account, when the user’s institution participates in the GIMACPAY ecosystem.
This approach helps to overcome a logic of siloed systems and fosters a more coherent payment experience for users.
Public Treasuries already present in the interoperable ecosystem
The place of Public Treasuries in this ecosystem is not merely theoretical.
The interoperable electronic payment system managed by GIMAC had 113 participants in 2025, including two Public Treasuries, alongside banks, microfinance institutions, payment institutions and mobile operators, aggregators, the Central Bank, and a postal administration. In the same year, 14.47 million transactions were processed on the GIMACPAY platform, for a cumulative amount of 654 billion FCFA.
These data show that payment interoperability is already part of a concrete regional dynamic. They also illustrate the progressive integration of public actors within an ecosystem that brings together different financial actors and means of payment.
The challenge is therefore less to create isolated digital systems than to foster their ability to communicate and function together.
What impact on the CEMAC digital economy?
The digitalisation of public payments can have effects that go far beyond the functioning of administrations.
When a citizen uses an electronic payment method to pay a tax or a public service, they also develop a digital habit that can extend into other areas of economic life. For businesses, more digitalised public payments can help simplify certain operations and encourage the integration of digital tools into their daily management.
This development can also support the creation of new digital financial services. The more electronic payments are integrated into everyday use, the more the financial ecosystem is called upon to develop solutions tailored to the needs of individuals, businesses, and institutions.
The digitalisation of Public Treasuries can thus contribute to creating a ripple effect on the digital economy, by encouraging the adoption of electronic payments, the formalisation of flows, and a better circulation of transactions within the economy.
Towards more integrated public payments in CEMAC
For this transformation to fully produce its effects, several conditions must be met: secure infrastructures, interoperable systems, accessible services, and the ability of administrations to support new usages.
The regional dimension is also decisive. In an economic space composed of six countries, interoperability makes it possible to overcome the borders of national systems and progressively build a more integrated payment environment.
The launch of the interoperable CEMAC payment QR Code in July 2026, whose operations are routed and cleared via the GIMAC platform, illustrates this desire to pursue the integration of digital payments at the regional level.
The digitalisation of Public Treasuries must therefore be considered as a component of the overall digital transformation of CEMAC. It does not only concern the modernisation of public finances: it also participates in the evolution of practices, infrastructures, and exchanges that structure the digital economy.
In this dynamic, interoperability is an essential condition. By connecting different actors and payment instruments within a single regional environment, GIMAC contributes to creating the infrastructures necessary for a more integrated, accessible, and secure digital economy.
