Perceptions and Analysis of Digital Risks

5Cell Phones and Scamming Risks in Cameroon: Users’ Experiences and Socio-Institutional Responses

5.1. Introduction

Cell phones are technological tools that are being used more and more. For Cameroonians, cell phone use has spread rapidly and this tool has been a part of daily life since the 2000s. In 2017, the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (Agence de Régulation des Télécommunications, ART) of Cameroon counted 19,706,027 mobile subscribers across all operators (ART 2018). Although this figure does not give a precise indication of the total number of cell phone users – some people have more than one subscription – it is worth noting that cell phones are one of the most widely used communication tools in Cameroon. Like Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which have long been associated with the socioeconomic development of Africa (Chevanaz and Paraschiv 2011; Loukou 2012), the cell phone is much lauded in Cameroon for the socio-economic dynamics associated with its use. Furthermore, with respect to mobile money¹, mobile transactions are gradually becoming commonplace among Cameroonians. Subscribers to this service – provided by both MTN and Orange, the two operators active in this sector – went from 2,074,653 in 2013 to 8,003,252 in 2017 (ART 2018). Moreover, according to the same source, the number of transactions carried out increased from 4,100,000 in 2013 to 106,022,289 in 2017.

Use of mobile money services, beyond the Internet – which is generally at ...