Cameroon’s tax revenue rose to 570 billion CFA (about $1 billion) at the end of the first quarter of 2015, the Directorate general of Taxes (DGI) unveiled.

The DGI said, at the end of a coordination meeting of the tax administration held on Friday in Bamenda (north-western region), this represented a 45-billion CFA increase compare to the previous quarter.

This achievement, according to the DGI, is related to a set of reforms initiated about a year ago within this administration, including the setting up and increasing in the number of tax centers for medium-sized businesses (CIME) for the follow up of SMEs, which account for 95 percent of the country’s businesses.

Besides, the payment of land taxes through the mobile phone and the tax reduction for businesses of less than two years of existence, have boosted revenues.

Out of a budget of 3,476.6 billion CFA francs in 2015, Cameroon hopes to collect over 2,000 billion CFA francs only through tax and customs receipts.