MTN Cameroon will soon start selling affordable high-performance smartphones in service centres across the country said chief executive officer Hendrik Kasteel.

Speaking at a press briefing in the country's economic capital Douala on 31 January 2019, Kasteel said the new devices will enable locals to benefit from 3G and 4G, and access to internet bundles and other packages.

The company also announced plans to roll out a 4G mobile internet access modem, enabling users to connect smart devices "at high speed, all the time".

2018 was a difficult year for the company, impacted by transformation, most significantly the evolution from voice to data.

"The voice market which constituted the revenue bulk of our operations has lost a significant part of its value. And at same time, the data market has not yet reached the growth level which would enable us to compensate the losses recorded on the voice market," said Kasteel.

While the company lost three million subscribers after complying with subscriber identification regulations, management confirmed it had secured eight million in January 2019 – up from less than seven million subscribers as of Q3 2018.

"Our performance is also highly impacted by the crisis in the North West and South West regions where MTN holds 60% market share of the telecommunications sector," said Kasteel.

He added that MTN Cameroon will focus on transparency, the youth market and network upgrades in 2019.

"We have invested more than three hundred billion francs CFA in the transformation of our network over the past three years. This effort made just within a short period of time represents almost half of the investments we achieved in 15 years under our first license between 2000 and 2015."