CASD partnered with CamCCUL to promote the use of electronic (ATM) cards as a healthy alternative to hand to hand money handling. Money has been proven by studies in many parts of the world as a vehicle for transmission of pathogenic bacteria and fungi, particularly drug resistant strains. A study carried out on Two hundred and thirteen samples of the Franc de la Communauté Financiere d’Afrique (Franc CFA) currency used in Cameroon and other countries in the Central African sub-region indicated a 93.9% contamination rate with notes showing higher contamination than coins.
To reduce the rate of infections transmitted through coins and notes hand to hand exchange from person to person during transactions, CASD signed a partnership with CamCCUL to increase the use of its ATM services as a healthy alternative.
Following the partnership agreement, CASDs carried out a market reaction research within CamCCULs Network of Credit Union members in 3 Major towns of Cameroon (Yaounde, Bamenda and Buea) to access the level of usage of the ATM Service and find out why members don’t use their cards often and why some are not purchasing the cards. In 2015, CASD reached out to 200 Credit Union members including 91 users and1 109 Non-users of the CamCCUL ATM Service.
At the end of the research that lasted for 5 months (August – December 2015), CASD submitted to CamCCUL the research report alongside a social marketing manual proposing marketing strategies to apply at the level of CamCCUL and its network of Credit Unions members to increase the use of ATM Cards.
