(Business in Cameroon) - The release of the first batch of the 500,000 laptops, promised by President Paul Biya in 2016, will take place in November 2017, while it was announced for December. This was made clear during the extraordinary government council held in Yaoundé on September 19.

Jacques Fame Ndongo, the minister of higher education, after this government council, said that this first batch comprises 80,000 laptops manufactured by Sichuan Telecom Construction and Engineering Co. Ltd. The official also reminded that manufacturing of the remaining laptops still continues in Shenzhen, China. Apart from the students of the 2016-2017 academic term initially which were to benefit from the programme, those of the 2017-2018 term will receive the laptops as well. 

Agreement for the current programme, the “e-national higher education” convention, was signed on Feb. 10, 2016, between the ministry of higher education and Sichuan Telecom Construction Engineering Co. Ltd, in line with President Biya’s “Plan Special Jeunes” (Special Youth Plan) which aimed to provide a laptop to every student registered in a public or private college in Cameroon. The initiative was entitled “un étudiant un ordinateur” (A student, a laptop).  

S.A