The Government of Togo has launched an ambitious project to connect 500 institutions, including ministries, government agencies, hospitals, universities and airports, to fibre-optic infrastructure by the end of next year. At the launch of its e-government initiative on 10 March, the government confirmed the signing of an equipment contract with Huawei Technologies of China, which will see 200km of cabling deployed in the tiny African nation. Funding for the project is being facilitated via concessionary financing from Exim Bank of China. Shi Weiliang, vice president for West Africa at Huawei, said that the optical fibre will be installed in ‘less than a year’, and will improve Togo’s internet capacity which is currently limited to its single link to the West Africa Cable System (WACS).
TeleGeography notes that the announcement comes at a time when the Togolese government has committed itself to resurrecting the fortunes of its state-owned PTO Togo Telecom. On 19 March CommsUpdate reported that the government intends to intercede to rebuild the ‘bankrupt’ operator and its subsidiary Togo Cellulaire (Togocel), pumping in funds to regenerate the carriers. Under the regeneration plan announced by the post and digital minister Cina Lawson, the state intends to upgrade the PTO’s network, providing improved services, affordable broadband internet access, better day-to-day management and a tighter control of spending. Additionally, the government is rebranding Togocel and overhauling the cellco’s whole infrastructure to make it competitive in a modern telecommunication industry. The government sees the regeneration plan as essential, saying that a successful telecoms industry is vital to achieve its goals for a successful digital economy.
Togo Telecom is on the verge of bankruptcy, having failed to reverse a trend of poor financial results that started in 2008. According to the findings of a state-led enquiry into the operator’s ongoing malaise, the government attributed Togo Telecom’s decline to the ‘poor management’ of its chief executive Sam Petchetibati Bikassam and systemic failure by the council that was set up by the government to monitor the telco’s performance and protect the interests of the state. The government alleges that numerous questionable financial transactions have been conducted in the past six or seven years, all of which have left Togo Telecom with a CFA100 billion (USD190.1 million) black hole in its books.
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Quelle/Source: TeleGeography, 01.04.2015
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