The Minister of Telecommunications paid a visit to the centre on Friday July 10, 2020.
During her visit, Minette Libom Li Likeng stressed on the importance of Cameroon owing a data centre. “As a nation if you keep your data abroad, you will lose your sovereignty. So I am very glad that our historic Telecom operator (Camtel) has a very strong data centre,” the minister observed. Two multi-national telecom companies operating in Cameroon have separate data centres and that of Camtel is the most modern and biggest within the central African sub-regions. With the centre, data of Cameroon origin could be safely stored in the country. The minister cited government agencies, educational bodies, telecommunications companies, financial institutions and retailers of all sizes found in Cameroon as potential clients of the data centre. Libom Li Likeng also expects social network services such as Google and Facebook to trust Camtel with their data. The General Manager of Camtel Judith Yah Sunday begged the Minister of Telecommunications to market the centre to authorities. “You (Minister Libom Li Likeng) our spokesperson in order to reassure them (government) of the excellent quality of this infrastructure, a true digital archiving centre, meant to host, in the most suitable conditions, sensitive data from various entities,” the GM said. However, the General Manager of Camtel must make sure that the centre when completed must be of “best of standards and within specifications of the contract,” the Minister insisted in her statement. To ensure total control, Judith Yah Sunday must make sure that Camtel experts take over from Huawei that is building the centre. The Data Centre sits on a surface area of 3019 m2 ; where Cameroon’s first telecommunications satellite was built in 1975. Surveillance cameras watch over the structure that has an automated independent energy and firefighting system. This ensures continuity in case of power outage.
Jude Viban
