Cameroon’s government has made available high-speed internet connection to start-ups in the fast-growing tech ecosystem nicknamed Silicon Mountain in Buea, southwest of the country.

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Minette Libom Li Likeng made the donation on the sidelines of the third edition of the Cameroon ICT Innovation Week, hosted from 14-18 March 2022.

In addition to hardware each of the start-ups will receive complementary year-long access to Fibre-to-the-Office connection at 6 Mbps, unlimited internet, calls and mobiles lines, as well as digital TV.

They will also get 135 gigabits of high-speed LTE broadband internet every month for one year. All packages have been made available through state-run Camtel.

35 start-ups spread across four hubs in Silicon Mountain will benefit from the government assistance.

She said: “The donation was a response to a promise I made during a visit to Buea, as part of the National Campaign for the Promotion of Civic and Responsible Use of the Internet. This visit gave me the opportunity to meet the creative youth of the Silicon Mountain.”

Techpreneur Mambe Churchill Nanje, founder of Njorku.com, who spoke on behalf of the Silicon Mountain community, said the support will help solve the community’s biggest challenge – reliable internet connectivity.

He was optimistic that by the time the year-long offer comes to an end, they would have raised enough financial resources to be able to pay the services for themselves and contribute to government income through taxes.

Silicon Mountain techpreneurs have in the past accused the Francophone-dominated government of under-investing in the tech ecosystem in Anglophone Cameroon in favour of Francophone regions.