Multi-purpose Telecommunication Centres - Lofty Project, Diluted Results!

Of the 20,000 telecentres earmarked by 2015, only 205 are feasible by the end of 2013.

With the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in the country some decades back, the government of Cameroon, conscious of the fact that every citizen needs to feel at home wherever he/she is, especially with the modernity brought about by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), embarked on constructing community telecentres. The telecentres which are public places where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others within and without the country, was government's way of assisting the rural population to get ICT services at reduced cost given that ICT operators by virtue of their business motives cannot get to remote areas where telecentres are constructed.

Some 10 years on since the project was hatched in 2002-2003, its objectives to give the rural world access to and the use of digital technologies to support community, economic, educational, and social development and in so doing reducing isolation, bridging the digital divide, promoting health issues, creating economic opportunities, and reaching out to youth remain lofty. But results obtained thus far leave much to desire.

What Balance Sheet 10 Years On?

Information from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MINPOSTEL) piloting the project indicates that as at April this year, 115 multipurpose community telecentres were already in place with some 90 under construction. Six were last week inaugurated in the West and five in the North West Regions. By the end of 2013, 205 of the telecentres could be operational. The number however falls far below the target given that the idea was to construct 20,000 by 2015. The results are further diluted by the fact that some of the telecentres are not functioning well for want of electricity and unstable internet network.

Legal Status of the Telecentres

According to Robert Alabatena, Head of Division of Projects and Prospective Studies in MINPOSTEL, government is still reflecting on the legal status of the telecentres. For now, the edifices are government structures. "We are still looking at how we can give a legal value to these community telecentres. Government needs to be sure of the functioning and management of the telecentres before thinking of giving them a legal status which will come with handing them over. For them to be handed over to the communities, we need to be sure that they are efficiently functional. We are striving to solve some of the problems plaguing the efficient functioning of the telecentres before coming up with the legal status," he said.

Its Workers, Their Status

The workers of the telecentres are recruited by the local management committee and paid by the State. The list of workers of each centre is sent to MINPOSTEL for their salaries to be paid. Yet, their status, like that of the centres is yet to be defined. "Be they workers of these telecentres or community radios in the telecentres, it is government that pays their salaries. This passes through a disbursement authorisation from the Minister of Finance," Robert Alabatena said. The income generated by the centres is managed by the local management committee.

Who Repairs Equipment?

For now, MINPOSTEL repairs bad equipment in the community telecentres. Calls for tenders are launched to ensure the maintenance of the telecentres but the Head of Division of Projects and Prospective Studies in MINPOSTEL, said most often efficiency is hard to come by reason why MINPOSTEL technicians are usually solicited to do so. Government is looking forward to training people within the telecentres on the maintenance of equipment or partnering with common initiative groups in the sector to ensure the maintenance.

Funding of the Project

Multipurpose community telecentres are part of projects funded by government with funds accruing from the Special Telecommunications Fund. Contributors to this fund include telephone operators who by a June 26, 2012 Presidential decree are expected to pay in 3 per cent of their annual business turnover to the fund. This to permit the State to develop the telecommunications sector by taking telecoms services to where operators cannot by virtue of their profit motive, especially in the rural areas where profit margins are either low or inexistent, as well as pay the country's contributions in international organisations concerned with information and communication technologies.