You fill in a form online, print it and take a taxi to submit precisely the same information at a counter. A few days later, an official requests yet another photocopy.
For many Cameroonians, that is what “digital transformation” still feels like: an old administrative procedure displayed on a new screen. The technology is visible, but the unnecessary steps remain.
Cameroon does have an official public-services portal bringing together guidance, procedures and information. That is useful. But a directory of services is not automatically a transactional platform where a person can start and finish an entire process remotely.
Information, submission and completion are different achievements
The first level of digitisation is knowing which documents to bring and which office to visit. The second is the ability to submit an application and receive confirmation. The third is completing the process end to end: paying official fees, tracking progress, receiving a legally valid decision and challenging an error without restarting at a physical counter.
Every time an agency announces that a process is “available online”, the essential question is: available at which level?
Can it be completed from a phone? Does the site save progress when connectivity fails? Must data entered electronically be written again on paper? Is a downloaded certificate accepted by other government offices?