Gov't signs finance deal to extend optic fiber cable network

Cameroon’s state-owned telecommunications provider Camtel said it agreed on a financing arrangement with U.S. lender William F Clark & Co. LLP to extend the country’s optic fiber cable to 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles), more than three times its current reach.

The “extension will enable us to link up one million households and offices in urban areas with high-speed Internet,” Camtel General Manager David Kotto Emane said in a release read on state radio. William F Clark will also finance the construction of two data centers, Emane said.

Camtel, which holds a monopoly for the roll-out of optic fiber in Cameroon, has so far embedded 6,000 kilometers across the country as part of the Central African Backbone project.

The government obtained a 24.47 billion francs ($4.2 billion) loan from the African Development Bank in September to lay 916 kilometers of fiber cables over four years, with connections to Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic and Republic of Congo.