Orange Cameroon, a mobile phone service provider, has reported that the Ministry of Finance notified it on July 5, 2022 that it had been granted permission to open Orange Money Cameroon SA, its company dedicated to mobile financial transactions. The operator claims that “Orange Money Cameroon SA becomes the first payment institution in Cameroon.” 

Specifically, Orange Money Cameroon SA is now authorised to independently provide payment services such as deposits, transfers, and withdrawals of money, purchases of credits and telephone packages, payment of bills, salaries, taxes, and duties, collection and collection of funds, and receipt of international money transfers, as of May 5, 2022, per the mobile phone company.

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This certification represents “a new milestone in the development of Orange Money as a major participant in financial inclusion for more than a decade and the leader in mobile payment in Cameroon,” according to Orange Cameroon authorities. In fact, according to the mobile phone company’s data, the Orange Money service, which will now be managed by an independent subsidiary, had already claimed 10 million accounts in the countries, more than 100,000 trading partners, and approximately 200,000 direct and indirect jobs before receiving the aforementioned approval.

Orange Cameroon has appointed Anne Catherine Tchokonté Tholagheu, a Cameroonian who was already piloting the Orange Money service in mobile telephony, as the General Manager of its new subsidiary in order to maintain its leadership and further develop its offerings on a highly competitive local market. Serge Hervé Eyiké, the newly appointed Deputy Managing Director, will support her.

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In compliance with the legislation governing the practise of banking in the CEMAC zone, the Minister of Finance also approved the appointment of KPMG Central Africa as Orange Money Cameroon SA’s statutory auditor, while Bekolo & Partners was appointed as the company’s first alternate auditor.

Orange Money Cameroon SA enables the Orange group to be better positioned to grasp future prospects in the field of mobile payments, such as the State of Cameroon’s recent decision to mandate the payment of taxes and fees via mobile. This decision has enabled people to pay approximately 10 billion FCFA in taxes and duties via mobile device in 2021 alone, according to Ministry of Finance figures.

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The fact that the amount collected by this payment mode constitutes only 0.47 percent of the 2,109.3 billion FCFA received by the General Directorate of Taxes in 2021 demonstrates that the mobile payment business in the country has tremendous opportunity for growth.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh