When Cameroon opened up to three mobile telephone companies in the country last March with the possibility for them to all operate the much-heralded 3G+ services, the hope was that youth, in particular and all those interested in various businesses would have an added value.

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It may be early now to make an accurate assessment of benefits offered to Cameroonians by the 3G, but the recent reports of an increase in E-Commerce activities in Douala cannot be unconnected to the new opportunities that the World Wide Web (www) can bring along.
The idea of E-Commerce and the existence of portals such as: www.wandashops.com, www.lamudi.cm, www.kaymu.cm, www.jumia.cm, www.carmudi.cm may still sound strange to many, yet the advantages that the budding initiatives carry are enormous.
While the innovation has brought about uncountable trendy mobile phones, tablets and others, there are equally millions worth of business operations that go along with the online services without people being aware of. Those interested simply need to look across their shoulders or that of their neighbours and other countries to see what is being done.
People may not yet be aware that they can either sit in the office, at home or in hospitals and command valuable goods, drugs and so on by simply indicating where they are through the telephone and explaining how they intend to pay for the good or service and be served what they want on the spot. Such a description may appear too so simply in explaining the intricacies of the E-Commerce that is gaining grounds today in the economic capital, of Cameroon. While it is obvious that the phenomenon begins from Douala which is the business hub in the country, there is no reason why it should not spread across the entire country if the required infrastructure, manpower and other conditions were to be in place.
Unfortunately, Cameroon has been poorly branded online for some time with most youth going on the Internet mostly to dupe foreigners and even fellow citizens by proposing dubious relationships or goods and services that never existed. Yet, the fact that the Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs and especially the social media have come to shrink distances making it possible for people to communicate over long distances within the click of a mouse on the computer keyboard makes it easier to do businesses at little cost and in the most transparent manner.
This means those who hope to take advantage of the 3G+ possibilities in the country need to rather build confidence in their online partners and not create fear and uncertainty under the guise of not being seen by those with whom they want to do business.  The service providers as well as the authorities also need to make available the required framework for such transactions to go smoothly.
The enactment of a law on Electronic Communication in the country in December 2010 was one step in the right direction. Taking the issue further would have called for even an urbanisation plan whereby goods and be delivered in homes if streets and other parts of our towns were well mapped out. But in the absence of such complicated and costly demand in a context like ours, there is still much that can be done.
The practice of E-Commerce entails more than the just the legal framework. The tradition of working in a virtual environment, especially carrying out financial operations is still being viewed with suspicion by many. Also, the rate of people opening bank accounts is still so low and the exchange framework for online banking agreements are not clear to most people in the country making it difficult for the population to make good use of overtures that exist online.

Some may argue that the Internet penetration rate in the country is still low and the recent complaints of power outages are not making the situation any better. Yet, the growing numbers of university graduates in the country could easily have a gambit of opportunities through the electronic commerce to earn a descent living rather than being allowed to mostly indulge in obscene activities and duplicity on the social media.        

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