At the end of 2023, the Government, through the National Institute of Statistics, collected data for the first phase of the Third General Business Census (RGE3) This phase focused on the mapping and enumeration of businesses. This operation, which covered all economic units (headquarters, establishments) with a fixed business premises or operating on a developed site, follows the 2016 (RGE2) and 2009 (RGE1) censuses. The objective is to (i) produce at the national level an up-to-date and georeferenced database on companies in operation, accessible to users; and (ii) provide decision-makers with key information on the economic units located on the national territory. Several steps were carried out, namely the design and development of census documents, the collection of data and the analysis of the results. This census mobilized significant financial and human resources (with 620 enumerators and controllers spread across the national territory). The recruitment of this field staff was made by call for applications in the regional services of the INS, for the pre-selection of 700 agents to be trained, by an ad hoc recruitment committee. The training made it possible to retain 575 enumerators and 45 controllers. The organization set up for the collection was based on twelve (12) census regions, namely the economic capital Douala and the political capital Yaoundé, the Center outside Yaoundé, the Littoral outside Douala and the eight (08) other administrative regions. Two collection media, namely tablets and paper questionnaires, were used. After the collection phase, the processing made it possible to correct the inconsistencies detected in order to have a basis for the appropriate analyses. Despite the logistical and security challenges encountered in some localities during data collection, the use of tablets allowed for in-depth exploitation of the initial data, from the storage server, and led to the creation of a database ready for detailed analysis.
