China Eximbank provides $52.05 million preferential buyer's credit for Phase 1 of the Cameroon Fiber Optic Transmission Backbone Project (Linked to Project ID#36246)

On July 8, 2009, China Eximbank and the Cameroon Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development signed a preferential buyer credit (PBC) loan agreement [CHINA EXIMBANK PBC NO.(2009)11 TOTAL NO.(73)] worth $52,050,000 USD for Phase I of the Fiber Optic Transmission Backbone Project (or 光纤骨干传输网项目). The terms were: 20-year maturity, 1% interest rate, and a 5-year grace period. This PBC loan covered 85% of the total contract amount, which is equal to $61,224,308 USD.MINEPAT then on-lent the proceeds of the loan to Cameroon’s state-owned telecoms operator, CamTel, who used this Chinese financing to pay for the commercial contract for this project-- signed September 5, 2007 and the Amendment dated March 10. 2009-- with Huawei Technologies (See: PREFERENTIAL BUYER CREDIT LOAN AGREEMENT On Cameroon Fiber Optic Transmission Backbone Project). The purpose of this project was to construct a national fiber-optic backbone that connects ten regions and around 100 district and department capitals. This project entered implementation on December 22, 2009 and was completed on April 29, 2011. The Cameroon Fiber Optic Transmission Backbone Project was implemented in 3 phases. The first phase (this project) started in 2009 and ended in 2011. The second phase, which involved laying of 3,200 kilometers of fiber optic cable in the northern part of Cameroon (Maroua), started in 2011 and ended in 2013. The third phase (project #36246) began in February 2015, was completed in 2017, and involved laying of 3,950 kilometers of fiber optic cable. As of 2017, about 12,000 kilometers of fiber cables had been laid across Cameroon, but the project was still in progress as the government wants at least 20,000 kilometers of fiber cables around Cameroon (FOSMN).

Additional details

1. The Chinese project title is 光纤骨干传输网项目. The French project title is Projet Backbone de Transmission par Fibre Optique.2. The loan agreement can be accessed in its entirety via SourceID#132333 or https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20485383-cmr_2009_169.3. The project ID number for this transaction in Cameroon's Development Assistance Database (DAD) is CAM/000709.

Number of official sources

16

Number of unofficial sources

8