State-owned telco Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) is poised to generate more revenue by selling shares to public and private investors after officially opening up its capital.

This follows a decree issued by the country's President Paul Biya on 28 May 2019.

"Camtel's shareholding may be open to other public or private entities... The statutes of Camtel provides for the modalities of participation in the share capital," the decree read in part.

Until this latest development, the government has been the sole owner of the network provider which runs landline and mobile services.

Camtel has also managed the country's lone national optic fibre backbone (12,000km) used by other telcos including MTN Cameroon, Orange Cameroun and Nexttel.

New shareholders will now have a say in the management of the network.

The company is opening up its shareholding in a bid to reduce communication costs and "become the national and sub-regional champion of digital transformation, through the development of efficient infrastructures in the service of the new economy by 2020."

Aside from landline and CDMA connectivity, the company plans to run GSM.

While it had announced the opening of branch offices in Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa to extend its service provision, company officials said they would establish presence "wherever their submarine cable lands in order to facilitate marketing."

Camtel owns the South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) fibre optic cable from Kribi in Cameroon to Fortaleza in Brazil, and partly owns the Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS), which runs from Kribi to the MainOne landing station in Lagos.