You can start selling on WhatsApp or Instagram without declaring anything, and many people do. The first sale is never the problem. The problem shows up when you need to collect properly, invoice a customer who asks for one, open a merchant account with an operator, or answer a tax inspection. Here is what is expected of an online merchant in Cameroon, in the order it makes sense to handle it.
One caveat first: this describes common steps, it does not replace your tax office or professional advice. Thresholds and rates come from the finance act, which is voted every year.
1. Exist legally
Three documents form the base, and they are the same ones any payment gateway will ask for at identity verification.
The trade and personal property credit register (RCCM). You obtain it from the registry of the court of first instance for your area, or through a business formalities centre. It exists for sole traders as well as companies: a merchant who sells regularly in their own name is required to register.
The unique identification number (NIU). This is your tax identity, issued by the tax administration and evidenced by a taxpayer card or certificate. Without an NIU you cannot invoice properly, cannot be paid by a serious company, and cannot open most business accounts.
Attachment to a tax centre. It determines where you file and where you pay. This step goes unnoticed until the day you try to regularise several years at once.
Depending on the activity, add the business licence: it is displayed on the premises for a physical shop and is sometimes asked for online activity too.
2. Know which regime you are under
Your tax regime depends on your annual turnover, and it changes almost everything: what you declare, how often, and whether you charge VAT.
- The flat-rate tax covers the smallest turnovers. It is paid quarterly and replaces several taxes. A merchant under this regime does not charge VAT.
- The simplified regime covers mid-range turnovers, with heavier filing and bookkeeping requirements.
- The actual-profit regime covers the largest turnovers. This is where you are liable for VAT, charge it to your customers and remit it.
The thresholds separating the three are set by the finance act: ask your tax centre for the figures in force this year rather than trusting a number you read somewhere last year.
One mistake comes up often and costs real money: charging VAT without being liable for it. A merchant under the flat-rate tax who adds 19.25% to an invoice is collecting a tax they have no right to collect. The 19.25% rate - the base rate plus the additional council levy - applies only to those who are liable.
3. Invoice properly
An invoice is not a scribbled receipt, and a business customer will ask you for one sooner or later. The expected details are always the same:
- your business or trading name, address and contact details;
- your NIU and your RCCM number;
- the customer's identity, and their NIU if they are a business;
- an invoice number and a date, the number following one continuous series, with no gaps and no duplicates;
- a precise description of what is sold, the quantity and the unit price;
- the total, and if you are VAT-liable, the base, the rate and the VAT amount, then the amount payable;
- the means of payment.
That last point deserves attention when you collect by Mobile Money: state the payment method and the transaction reference. That is what lets you tie a line on your statement to a specific invoice six months later, without reconstructing the scene from memory.
An invoice sent as a PDF is an invoice. What counts is that it carries the details, that it is numbered within the series, and that you can find it again.
4. Keep books that stand up
This is the point online merchants neglect most, and the easiest to fix early.
Separate the personal wallet from the business one. A single Mobile Money number used for sales, groceries and family transfers makes any verification impossible - starting with your own. A number dedicated to the business costs an hour to set up and saves dozens later.
Keep a sales register. Date, customer, description, amount, payment method, invoice number. A spreadsheet is fine at first. What matters is the regularity, not the tool.
Keep your supporting documents. Invoices issued, purchase invoices, statements, operator receipts. The retention period set by accounting law is counted in years, not months: get into the habit of filing every month rather than searching a year later.
A practical note if you collect through a gateway: the ledger of operations - collection, commission, payout, with the resulting balance on every line - is exactly the document your accountant needs. It reads far better than four hundred SMS messages, and it cannot be rewritten after the fact.
5. What your site must show
A buyer is entitled to know who they are handing money to. Three blocks are enough, and their absence is the first thing that makes people hesitate:
- Who is selling: name or business name, address, a phone number and an email address that actually answer.
- What you sell and on what terms: delivery times and areas, charges, what happens if a product is not as described or an order is cancelled, and whether a refund is possible.
- What you do with customer data: what you collect, why, and how long you keep it. The principle that protects you best is to collect only what you need in order to deliver.
One absolute rule about payment: never ask a customer for their Mobile Money PIN, for any reason, on any channel. That code is entered on the operator's network and nowhere else. A merchant who asks for it becomes impossible to tell apart from a fraudster.
6. What registering changes for your collections
Very concretely, it unlocks three things: access to live mode on a gateway, which rests on these same documents; a merchant account with an operator, which is not opened for a private individual; and the ability to invoice companies, which do not pay without a compliant invoice.
One last detail, usually discovered at the worst moment: the holder of the payout number must match the holder of the merchant account. An account in the company's name and a Mobile Money number in a cousin's name means a blocked payout and an urgent paperwork fix.
The order to do it in
- Get the NIU, then the RCCM.
- Have your regime and your tax centre confirmed.
- Open a Mobile Money number dedicated to the business.
- Set up a numbered invoice template carrying your details.
- Keep the sales register from the very first order.
- Publish on your site who sells, on what terms, and how to reach you.
None of these steps needs a lawyer. Taken in this order they take a few weeks - and they spare you the most unpleasant situation there is: having to regularise everything at the exact moment the business starts working.