(Business in Cameroon) - In Cameroon, the number of modern companies listed in 2016 was 28,872, up from 23,427 in 2015 and 18,597 in 2014, the National Statistics Institute revealed in the recent Business Directory.

According to the document, these companies generated a total of CFA11,551 billion in turnover. Nearly 74% of the companies achieved a turnover of less than CFA50 million while only 1.5% of companies achieved a turnover of more than 3 billion but accounted for 78.7% of overall turnover generated during the period.

The Cameroonian corporate world remained dominated by sole proprietorships (60.6% in 2016 against 58.6% in 2015, 55.6% in 2014 and 52.5% in 2013), followed by Limited Liability Companies (30.0%) and Public Limited Companies (3.9%).

Since 2013 (when the first business directory was issued), INS has noted an increase in the demographic domination of individual companies. This trend is the same in Businesses creation Centers (Centres de formalités de création des entreprises (CFCE), where most entrepreneurs prefer sole proprietorships.

INS pointed out that “the decrease in the capital required to create a LLC to CFA100,000 from CFA1 million could contribute to reversing this situation in the coming years”.

S.A