Launched in 2019, the Dorsal-Fibre Optic Project in the Central African Republic is entering its active phase. The government officially handed over the infrastructures on Monday 6 February in the presence of several partners.
Co-financed by the African Development Bank (13.216 million units of account) and the European Union (16.6 million euros), the objective of this project is to contribute to the diversification of the Central African economy. Specifically, it will increase tax revenues and reduce the cost of economic and social transactions, and open up rural areas to digital technology. The facilities extend over 935 km and are coupled with regional integration through a fibre optic access infrastructure to neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville. For its operation, 11 relay sites are built in Bangui and in strategic towns in the northwest of the country.
“We have just tested it with the Head of State. He called directly and saw the quality and reliability of the network. I say to the Central Africans, in a short time, we will start marketing. In September, we will have an operator who will be there, the government will enter into a public-private partnership with another operator who will manage the infrastructure. It will sell the capacity to telephone operators such as Orange, Telecel and Socatel,” François-Xavier Décopo, coordinator of the project, told RFI.
This high-speed internet connection project will allow Central Africans to have easy access to reliable and affordable telecommunication services through mobile phone companies. “We need the whole country to be connected […] We are a continental country. It takes work, trenches to get here. Now that it is done, we must optimise to reduce the handicap of isolation,” says Faustin Archange Touadéra, the President of the Republic.
