Cameroon’s Directorate General of Customs collected 1.8 billion FCFA (approximately 2.7 million euros) in duties and taxes on imported phones, tablets, and digital terminals between April and early September 2026, under a new collection mechanism. Before the reform, phone clearance contributed barely 100 million francs per month to state coffers. The mechanism has sparked complaints from some importers, while customs officials say they are pursuing fiscal, security, and economic goals.
At Avenue Kennedy in Yaoundé, the main retail hub for imported mobile phones in Cameroon, business is bustling. Seydou, a second-hand phone importer, says he has issues with the new declaration and clearance system: “We import used phones that sell here for between 20,000 and 25,000 CFA francs. They are cleared at the airport, but customs officers do not record their serial numbers. When we sell them to customers, they come back saying they keep receiving messages that their phones will be blocked.”
Since April 1, phone prices have risen, according to this reseller. “Customers are not interested in buying undeclared phones, but they cannot afford the price of cleared phones either. So this causes us a lot of harm,” says Gérard Fontem. He now sells his phones at higher prices; for some, prices have nearly doubled, from 45,000 to 85,000 CFA francs.
“Those who think the phone price has increased are those who were not paying”
From 68 euros to about 129 euros, for Paul Olivier Libii, principal customs inspector and focal point for the reform at the Directorate General of Customs in Yaoundé, importers are far from being suffocated: “Those who think the phone price has increased are those who were not paying [their taxes], because for those who paid based on the transactional value at 66%, the phone price will actually decrease. But those who were not paying used the customs duty as an adjustment variable to undermine those who paid. The new mechanism will bring everyone to the same level.”
This new mechanism is not a new tax, but rather a new collection system based on digitalization, says Paul Olivier Libii: “The transactional value has been divided by four, or even seven. We have eight collection categories ranging from 5,000 to 400,000 CFA francs. Then the overall rate went from 67% to 33.33%, so these are facilitation methods.” About five million phones still escaped the system, phones that customs services promise will be recovered.
Read alsoCameroon: a measure on customs duty collection for phones sparks debate
