Cameroon’s customs authorities pulled in 1.8 billion FCFA (roughly 2.7 million euros) in duties and taxes on imported phones, tablets and digital terminals between April and early September 2026, following the rollout of a new collection mechanism. Before the reform took effect, phone clearance brought the state barely 100 million francs a month. The shift has consequences that ripple well beyond the treasury: importers are grumbling, retail prices have jumped, and buyers are feeling the pinch.

At Kennedy Avenue, the market feels the squeeze

The Kennedy Avenue area in Yaoundé, the country’s main hub for imported mobile phones, is buzzing with activity. Seydou, who deals in second-hand handsets, says the new declaration and clearance system has created real problems for his business. “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 don’t record their serial numbers. When we sell them to customers, they come back saying they keep getting messages that their phones will be blocked.”

Since 1 April, prices have climbed, according to this reseller. “Customers aren’t interested in buying undeclared phones, but they can’t afford the price of cleared ones either. So it causes us a lot of harm,” says Gérard Fontem. He now sells his phones at higher prices, with some nearly doubling from 45,000 to 85,000 CFA francs.

“Those who think the price went up are the ones who weren’t paying”

For Paul Olivier Libii, a senior customs inspector and focal point for the reform at the Directorate General of Customs in Yaoundé, importers are far from being strangled. “Those who feel the phone price has increased are those who weren’t paying [their taxes], because for those who paid based on transactional value at 66%, the phone price will actually drop. But those who weren’t paying used customs duty as an adjustment variable to undermine those who did pay. The new mechanism will bring everyone to the same level.”

The new mechanism is not a new tax, but rather a new collection system built on digitalisation, Libii argues. “The transactional value was divided by four, even by seven. We have eight collection categories ranging from 5,000 to 400,000 CFA francs. Then the overall rate dropped from 67% to 33.33%, so these are facilitation methods.” About five million phones were still slipping through the system, and customs services promise they will be tracked down.

What the reform changes for businesses and households

The consequences are tangible for both traders and consumers. Importers who previously avoided duties now face the same rules as everyone else, which they say squeezes their margins. For buyers, the price of a cleared handset has risen sharply, pushing some toward cheaper, undeclared devices that come with the risk of network blocking. The state, meanwhile, has turned a modest revenue stream into a significant one, though the broader economic effect depends on whether the crackdown on undeclared phones succeeds without choking off affordable access to mobile devices.

By Boureima Amadou — Reporter