(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s Minister of Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, presided last May 18 over the 9th ordinary session of the Steering Committee of the Central Africa Backbone (CAB) to review the progress made so far.

According to the official, some activities on the project have been canceled at the instigation of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the main fund provider for the initiative. The institution has made this cancelation the condition for saving the funding dedicated to the project. However, Minette Libom Li Likeng revealed, meeting this AfDB requirement has caused Cameroon to lose CFA7 billion in funding. "The cancelation of these activities is equivalent to about 24% of the amount of the loan agreement. This is more than CFA7 billion of the CFA30 billion granted," she reported.

The minister indicated that the configuration of the fiber optic infrastructure has been modified. The construction of the technical premises to house the active equipment of the fiber optic has been suspended and the initial contract terminated due to the slowness in its execution. Also, Huawei, a partner on the project, suggests an outdoor approach rather than an indoor one; 13 other activities that have not yet been launched, most of which are in the process of being contracted (awaiting AfDB’s approval) or are to be carried out in the Northwest and Southwest regions, have also been canceled.

Minister Minette explains that over the past two years, the CAB project has experienced significant disruptions, partly due to the cumbersome nature and misunderstandings in its implementation. These include the management of no-objection requests, difficulties in managing project staff throughout 2020, and the delay in recruiting the procurement specialist, which resulted in non-compliance with the procurement plan and subsequently the project's annual work plan.

Other major disruptions include the Covid 19 pandemic, which led to multiple suspensions of several contracts, systematic postponements of the work of the contracting committees, and delays in the execution of certain contracts; and the insecurity in the Northwest and Southwest regions, which led to the reconfiguration of the entire project with the cancelation of all the projects registered in these regions.

Built on a regional component and national components, the CAB project started in Cameroon in 2016 but has only seen real development since 2018, particularly in 2019. This includes the start of work on laying fiber optics in the southern region of the country, for interconnection with Congo, and in the eastern region, for interconnection with the Central African Republic.

Sylvain Andzongo