(Business in Cameroon) - Invited to the Economic Conference on Investment which ended on 18 May 2016 in Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, Bruno Mettling, CEO of the Orange group for Africa and the Middle East, announced that the Cameroonian subsidiary of this French telecoms group will launch Orange FAB in 2016. This is, he specified, a structure meant to support the development of local start-ups.

In concrete terms, we learn, through Orange FAB, start-up sponsors in Cameroon will benefit from a multi-dimensional support, with “full respect to their autonomy”, Bruno Mettling specified. This support, Elisabeth Medou, MD of orange Cameroun explained, will be in the form of technical, legal and financial support.

Orange FAB, according to Bruno Mettling, testifies to the ambition of the Orange group to “become a partner in the digital transformation of Africa” in general, and Cameroon, in particular. This initiative, we learn, concretely enables this telecoms firm to get more involved in the development of start-ups, going further than the simple awarding of prizes to start-ups offering innovative projects.

“We have realised that many start-ups who received prizes were often not able to bring their projects to fruition. Our ambition is now to identify mature projects and transform these ideas into business opportunities, into companies”, Elisabeth Medou highlighted.

BRM