Bright future for Camtel with 4G infrastructure
Once distressed and listed for privatization, the management
of the state-owned telecoms giant ventured into mobile telephony and internet
provision. Today, the future appears bright once again for the company
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde
GM David Nkoto Emane. |
After a long spell of precariousness due to flawed
management of previous managers, Cameroon’s giant telecoms company, CAMTEL, is
once again on its feet and firmly so.
The
state-run company that was long earmarked for privatization alongside other
distressed national outfits, is now picking up the pieces, and getting on track
for yet another boom.
The
secret behind this magical turn-around in the fortunes of Camtel is not hard to
find: The resort to wireless, broad band technology (mobile telephony), the
provision of internet services, and the launching of the optic fibre backbone
that not only covers the entire national territory but extends to neighbouring
Chad. There is also an ongoing project to connect Cameroon and Brazil in South
America by optic fibre. Ofcourse, All of these is thanks to the managerial
clairvoyance and business acumen of the General Manager of Camtel, David Nkoto
Emane.
It
should be recalled that following the advent of mobile telephone in Cameroon in
the mid 1990s, the craze by the public for the new, more modern and convenient
handy sets rendered the fixed phone (CAMTEL’s sole product at the time)
obsolete, redundant and out of place. And with the attendant loss of a greater
part of its customer base, Camtel’s fortunes plummeted drastically this, with
obvious consequences.
Faced
with the situation, government had no option other than to list Camtel for
privatization in 1999.
But
after potential buyers failed to seduce government with attractive buy-off
bids, the government gave the management of Camtel the go ahead to venture into
the provision of more modern and fashionable products, if only to better its
precarious financial situation.
Today
with its two major products, CT phone and broadband internet, Camtel is
experiencing a boom. The management of the company has rekindled hope in the
workers and the government about the company’s future.
What is
more, thanks to win-win accords signed with Asian partners, notably the Chinese
telecoms giants Huawei, CAMTEL is today making it big with its new products,
and their coverage of the national territory is getting almost complete with
the advent of the optic fibre backbone that not only runs from Ambam in the
extreme South region, to Kousseri in the Far North but also extends to Chad.
And
even though a former finance minister, Essimi Menye Lazare, announced that a
new privatization strategy is being planned for CAMTEL, it is believed that
with the company’s growing fortunes, government would not want to give it out
any more.
Besides,
since privatization is aimed at transferring at least 51% of the company’s
stakes to a private operator, government is getting more and more reluctant to
lease out a potentially lucrative and vibrant sector.
Fortunately
too, the government is about to grant Camtel license to operate full scale 4G
mobile telephony using the GSM network. This, if exploited, will trigger the
company’s rise to the skies, especially as there is still enormous market space
for mobile telephone in Cameroon. Studies show that barely less than 20% of the
over 22 million Cameroonians are using mobile phones.
With
current telecoms services revenue growing at a favourable rate of 13.8%, it is
projected that fiscal revenue could get to over 1.9 billion dollars by 2017.
With this, Cameroon would feature among the fastest growing telecoms markets
across Africa and the Middle East, economic analysts say.
But the
analyst also contend that for this to happen, CAMTEL must inject huge financial
investments, and government, for her part, must give Camtel much-needed support
to permit her to compete favorably with foreign competitors notably MTN, Orange
and recently Nextell.
Launching
the optic fibre backbone several years ago at Ambam in the South Region,
Cantel’s GM David Nkoto Emane said the project is perfectly in line with
President Paul Biya’s greater ambitions policy.
Commentators
at the event noted that David Nkoto Emane was right given the numerous
achievements he has recorded in barely a few years at the helm of Camtel.
Yet,
many others still believe that with Nkoto Emane, “The best is still to come”.
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