- David NkotoEmane, Director General,
Camtel
He made this revelation in an interview he
granted the press on Wednesday 19 May 2016 on the sidelines of the Yaounde International
Economic Conference, and after participating at a workshop on ICTs, during
which he made two proposals to foreign investors present.
What
was the objective of your meeting with investors?
Camtel DG, David NkotoEmane |
Concretely,
what are these projects?
I
presented two projects to them pertaining essentially to telecommunication. The
first was that of optic fibre, given that we continue to talk of access to the
fibre. The fluidity of the internet network must not suffer anymore. We have
this project and are simply in search of financing so as to continue with the
installations. It will enable Cameroonians to surf at a low cost and to use
services such as video, television, and free road. It also has to do with The
Fibre-To-The-X, FTTX, project which will facilitate the connection of one
million households in Yaounde and Douala, 300 SMEs. In short, the objective of
the FTTX project is to take tele-density of 45% to 2020, modify and make dense
the network by introducing the optic fibre. The second project is an
application which we wrote. Camtel does not have the vocation to write
applications, but it is an example that we are showing to our young engineers.
Could
you briefly present this second project?
The
second project that we presented to the investors is Cameroon’s agro-pastoral
portal. This project aims at deploying a platform of convergence of web and
mobile technologies for the agro-pastoral sector in Cameroon. This would help reduce the digital gap in the
rural milieu, render agricultural contracts more transparent, reduce
transaction costs, galvanize development, encourage amongst others exchanges
and high scale broadcast of information in good time.
The
application that we wrote is not only meant for urban areas. It is particularly
meant for rural areas. You know that the rate of the mobile in Cameroon is 70%.
Even in the most remote areas, you can use ICTs. He who says that without the
4G and the optic fibre there is no digital economy is making an error. There
are countries which had digital economy before deploying the optic fibre. Thus
it is an error to think that for a digital economy to be put in place in
Cameroon, 175 000 km2 of optic fibre should be deployed.
What
does this application bring to Camtel?
It
brings nothing to Camtel but it permits us to make it known to the youth that
they can now develop applications which are specific to our country.
And
if finally investors do not finance these products, how would you go ahead to
implement them?
…We
have always talked of the privatization of Camtel. This is what constitutes the
sword of Damocles which can at anytime destroy our projects for lack of
financing. But throughout my eleven year’s experience as general manager, I’ve
always had financing when I ask for them. Proof is that we are in the process
of placing submarine cables between Cameroon and Brazil. This investment costs
370 million dollars for a company which is on the road to privatization.
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