(Business in Cameroon) - The last Savoirs communs, published by the French Development Agency (FDA) in partnership with the University Agency for French-speaking Culture and Unesco, reveals that Cameroon’s mobile phone penetration rate in 2014 was 36%, far behind African countries such as Botswana (75%), Mauritius (74%), Ivory Coast (46%) and Nigeria (42%).

This statistic cuts the 71% mobile phone penetration rate announced by the Managing Director of Cameroon’s Telecommunications Regulations Agency (TRA), Jean Louis Beh Mengué, in an interview with the government publication in December 2014. To show the level of progress in mobile phone acquisition, Mr. Beh Mengué had also stated that the penetration rate was 9.8% in 2004.

The TRA Managing Director had however explained that the mobile phone penetration rate had been calculated based on the number of SIM cards in active usage in the country and not based on the total number of mobile service subscriptions relative to the total population.