Cameroon increases phone revenue with new customs system
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Cameroon’s customs authority collected over CFA1.8 billion in duties and taxes on imported mobile phones from April 1 to early September 2026.
This revenue represents more than a fourfold increase compared to the approximately CFA400 million collected during the same period the previous year.
The increase stems from a new customs clearance system implemented on April 1 for phones, tablets, and other digital devices, which requires importers to register each device’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number in the CAMCIS system. The system allows authorities to verify whether devices connected to Cameroonian mobile networks have been properly cleared. Since September 1, the government has begun blocking devices not registered in the system, having already blocked over 1,000 phones by the first week of September.
This measure targets both newly imported undeclared devices and phones connected after April 1 whose owners did not respond to warning messages. Customs officials designed the reform to recover lost revenue from previously undeclared imports, and they estimate annual mobile phone sales in Cameroon at around 4 million units.
While the initial revenue increase is substantial, authorities caution that it is too early to determine if they will reach their goal of CFA25 billion in annual revenue, a figure last seen between 2001 and 2005.
