State-run telecommunications company, Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has organized an unprecedented consultation with stakeholders of the electronic communications sector in the country. They met at the Yaounde Conference Center, November 25-26, 2019, in a conclave that was presided over by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, in the presence of the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development, Georges Elanga Obam. The meeting was organized under the theme: “Digital transformation of Cameroon: Camtel at the service of operators.”

According to the General Manager of Camtel, Judith Yah Sunday espe Achidi, they organized the consultation with industry stakeholders in order to share good practices and the new guidelines of Camtel at the dawn of the 2020 fiscal year. “The meet up is to exchange on the new orientations for the development of the state-run enterprise for the period 2019-2025, following the change of management and to present new forms of partnership offered by Camtel,” Judith Yah said, underscoring that the telco has new and exciting offers for partners and customers.

Trends in the telecommunications sector show a strong growth in demand for services for the management of data, and a tendency for stakeholders to move towards the convergence of fixed/mobile products and value-added services. In this light, government took the resolve to elaborate a strategic document named “Digital Cameroon 2020”. The blueprint seeks to increase digital penetration from 0.34 per cent to 0.47 per cent, increase internet access from community tele-centers for the population from 47,000 to 100,000, reduce internet cost, boost internet penetration from 11 per cent to 50 per cent and take up the contribution of the sector to national income from 5 per cent to   10 per cent.

Recalling that the Head of State had in 2018 redefined determinant priorities to achieve emergence, notably security, economic growth and the amelioration of living conditions of Cameroonians, Judith Yah said the drive requires the action of Camtel. As efforts which the company will be putting in, she highlighted the extension and densification of the network, specifically the optic fibre, and its exploitation, as well as the commercialization of the capacities of its infrastructures, including the four landing stations of the submarine cables.