By Abdelaziz Barrouhi
TUNIS, Sept 18 (Reuter) - African telecommunications ministers on
Thursday gave their go
ahead for the $1.3 billion Africa One telecommunications project and
they are looking for
investors to complete the financing.
The plan is to encircle Africa with 39,000 kilometres of undersea fibre
optic cable that will link
countries of Africa to each other and to the rest of the world.
A three-day review meeting at the ministerial level in Tunis was told
that the revised cost of the
project would be $1.3 billion.
``We reached at this meeting the quota of countries that support the
project. Implementation is to
start right now,'' Ahmed Laouyane, Director of the Telecommunication
Development Bureau at
the International Telecomunication Union (ITU) and co-ordinator of the
project told Reuters.
Each participating state was expected to contribute at least $15
million towards the project.
Other resources will come from financial institutions such as the World
Bank, and from large
telecommunications groups such as AT&T, British Telecom, Laouyane said.
Spanish, Portuguese and Greek telecoms groups had already expressed
readiness to participate,
he said.
AT&T and TSSL of the U.S. have already signed the project's Memorandum
of Understanding,
he said.
``The remainder would come from equity investors whop believe in the
project's rentability. They
(investors) are here, they are knocking at the door,'' Laouyane said.
The system, which is expected to be completed by the year 2000, would
link some 29 stations in
coastal African countries. Land-locked neighbours would be linked to
these stations through fibre
optic cables, microwave or satellite routes.
Member countries as of Septemer 18 were: Algeria, Angola, Benin,
Botswana, Cameroon,
Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi,
Mauritania, Morocco,
Mozambique, Niger, Republic of Congo, Sudan, Tunisia, Democratic
Republic of Congo,
Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo.
Internet
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