State-owned telecommunications company Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has unveiled the Zamengoe Datacentre, a tier III datacentre located on the outskirts of the capital Yaounde and touted as the biggest in the Central African sub-region.

The datacentre is part of Cameroon’s National Broadband Network II Project and is located at the historic Zamengoe site, the country’s first-ever satellite telecommunications centre built in 1975.

Camtel Datacentre Project Manager Lyeb Hyacinthe said some institutions are already hosting their data with the newly launched datacentre.

The datacentre has a capacity of 2,000 terabytes and was financed through the Exim Bank of China.

Valued at €15-million (approximately 9.8-billion CFA Francs), the project was executed by Huawei Technologies Cameroon, with construction of the complex completed by China Shenyang International Cooperation Co. Ltd.

The facility occupies a 3,019 m2 surface area consisting of five apartments. It has a 400 m2 server room as well as a supervision room with eight working stations. Other features include an access management system, surveillance cameras, fire detection and fire-fighting system, automated energy management system of 440KW, four standby electric generators of 1,000 kVA, with 40,000 litre capacity of gasoil.

Camtel General Manager Judith Yah Sunday Achidi, said. “It will contribute in developing the digital economy by facilitating access to the hosting of service platforms, and catalyse the ingenuity of our youth notably those with start-ups that have local presence and impact.”

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng called on Camtel executives to ensure that the state-owned telco takes full control, without delay, of the day-to-day running of the centre through the effective transfer of skills from the contractors.

“Besides serving Camtel, this centre should be transformed into a real hosting opportunity to serve the growing demand of entities that generate or use data such as government agencies, educational bodies, telecommunications companies, financial institutions, retailers of all sizes and the providers of online information and social networking services such as Google and Facebook.”

Camtel is one of four mobile network service providers operating in Cameroon. Although the company owns the lone fibre optic backbone in the country, with just 3% of the market, it holds the lowest market share, behind its competitors MTN Cameroon, Orange Cameroun and Nexttel.