Below is a press release from the Ministry of Higher Education

 

The Minister of Higher Education, Chancellor of Academic Orders, informs the national and international public opinion that he granted an audience on the 17th of July 2017 to Mr Zhu Wenli, Deputy General Manager of the Chinese company Sichuan Telecom Construction and Engineering Co. Ltd, the project manager of the E-National Higher Education Network, in charge of supplying 500 000 computers donated by the Head of State to Cameroonians registered in State Universities and in Private Higher Education Institutes for the 2016-2017 academic year. This audience took place at the backdrop of a working session he already had on the 20th of June 2017 in the presence of Mr Qian Wenfend, General Manager of the said company.

 

From these working sessions, the following conclusions ensued:

 

After the validation of all the administrative and technical prerequisites, following  the general framework agreement signed on the 18th of June 2015 in Beijing (China) in the presence of the His Excellency the Prime Minister, Head of Government and in conformity with dispositions of the Decree of the President of the Republic, Head of State of 27th July 2016, authorising the Minister of the Economy, Plan and Regional Development to sign the Concessional loan Agreement with Eximbank China, the applicable statutory advance (30% of the general amount of the loan) was disbursed in favour of the Sichuan Telecom Construction and Engineering Co. Ltd.
The first consignment of computers fabricated in Shenzhen, the Chinese town situated opposite Hong Kong, in the South of China, hosting the headquarters of the biggest Chinese multinationals in the digital economy (Huawei, ZTE, Tencent, BYD) and the most important computer fabricating companies in the world, shall be received in Shenzhen at the end of October 2017 and in Cameroon at the end of December 2017. Thereafter, the fabrication of these computers shall continue in an accelerated manner so as to satisfy the high student demand.
Concurrently, the Sichuan Telecom Construction and Engineering Co. Ltd has dispatched a team of experts in charge of the conception, construction and equipment of nine Digital University Development Centres.  The work of this team has started, for a provisional period of three months, on the first requisite phase involving the studies and the conception of these centres, which shall be constructed in eight campuses of State Universities and in the Inter-Congo Cameroon University in Sangmalima, whose doors shall open in the Nkolnguet neighbourhood at the beginning of the 2017 academic year.
Furthermore, the Sichuan Telecom Construction and Engineering Co. Ltd shall put in place, within the framework of the above mentioned Concessional loan, a National centre for the Management of Network Interconnection between the University Digital Development Centres, of which the laying of the foundation stone for the construction of the Headquarters in Yaounde, is expected to take place in the Month of October 2017.
 

The Minister of Higher Education reiterates to all the stakeholders concerned, the Highest Instructions of the His Excellency Paul BIYA, President of the Republic, Head of State, relative to the diligent distribution of these computers to students of the 2016/2017 academic year who would have been found eligible after haven been biometrically registered by their Vice-Chancellors, Rectors and Managers of the respective Private Higher Education Institutes.

 

Finally, the Minister of Higher Education makes public for the University Community and the national and international public opinion the following information: all regular and eligible students, duly registered in the national database of students in the 2016/2017 academic year shall be beneficiaries of the Head of State, President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul BIYA’S donation, in respect of a schedule which will be communicated with the reception of the first consignment of computers expected in Cameroon by the end of December 2017.

 

Yaounde

(s)Jacques FAME NDONGO

 

Minister of Higher Education