In a ceremony flush with the pomp befitting a significant state affair, a new board was installed at Cameroon’s NFC Bank on July 28, 2025. Flanked by the Minister of Finance, the Governor of the regional central bank (BEAC), and other top financial officials, Nelly Chatue-Diop, founder and CEO of the Web3 startup Ejara, was formally appointed as an Independent Director.
The appointment is a head-turner. Chatue-Diop is a vanguard of decentralised finance in Francophone Africa. Her company, Ejara, raised an 8m Series A in 2022 to provide users with non-custodial crypto wallets, championing the mantra “own your keys.”
Her new boardroom seat is at a bank that represents the complete opposite. National Financial Credit (NFC) Bank has, until this week, been the poster child for centralised failure and state intervention. After accumulating heavy losses and suffering from what officials diplomatically call “less-than-stellar governance,” the bank was placed under provisional administration by the Central African Banking Commission (COBAC) way back in November 2012.
For nearly 13 years, NFC Bank has operated as a financial ward of the state. Its official resurrection comes courtesy of a 25 billion CFA franc (approximately $41.5m) restructuring plan financed entirely by the Cameroonian government.
In a triumphant post on X (formerly Twitter), the Ministry of Finance exulted: “With strengthened capital, a healthy balance sheet, and profits returning to positive levels, NFC Bank has officially emerged from provisional administration.”
The Two-Year Countdown
The state’s generosity comes with a strict deadline. The new management team, led by Julius Manjo Berdu who has served as interim administrator since 2013, is on a performance contract. According to sources in the Ministry of Finance, the objective is stark: whip the bank into shape for privatisation within two years.
The government of Cameroon, which currently owns 99.93% of the bank, is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to offload the asset. The bailout was a condition of the country’s 2021–2025 economic program with the IMF, a necessary evil to save the institution from total collapse.
The state’s intervention involved purchasing a portfolio of bad loans worth nearly 36.2 billion CFA francs and passing them to the state’s debt recovery company. This financial deep clean has, according to the Finance Minister, allowed the bank to post a cumulative net profit of nearly 13 billion CFA francs since 2017.
From Crypto Wallets to Boardroom Suits
So, where does a crypto founder fit into this picture of state-rescued traditional finance?
Chatue-Diop’s Ejara is a darling of the African tech scene. It has raised over 10m from notable VCs like Dragonfly Capital and Anthemis by building what many see as the future of finance in the region. The startup offers users a way to buy and sell crypto, but crucially, it provides non-custodial wallets, giving users full control over their assets.
“When everyone was taking the other route and building centralized exchanges, we always thought that, if you want to own crypto, you need to own your keys,” Chatue-Diop told TechCrunch in a previous interview. That philosophy proved prescient during the collapse of centralised giants like FTX.
Her appointment to the board of a bailed-out bank is, on the surface, a clash of ideologies. One world is built on decentralisation and user sovereignty; the other was just saved by the ultimate central authority — the state.
However, the move is likely a calculated one from the Cameroonian government. Chatue-Diop is also the President of the Cameroon Fintech Association, a position that gives her significant influence and visibility within the country’s burgeoning financial technology ecosystem.
Placing her on the board sends a powerful signal. It suggests the government wants to inject genuine innovation and modern governance into NFC Bank to make it an attractive asset for a future buyer. It’s a nod to the fact that the future of banking, even for a rescued institution, cannot ignore the digital revolution.
For NFC Bank, the challenge is immense. It must transition from a state-supported “zombie bank” to a nimble, profitable, and private institution. For Chatue-Diop, the question is whether the principles of Web3 — transparency, efficiency, and user-centricity — can be infused into the DNA of an old-world bank that has spent more than a decade on life support. The countdown to privatisation has begun.