Construction works on an African Development Bank, (AfDB)-funded Trans Sahara Optic Fibre route construction project in the Republic of Chad has commenced.
This project, which is part of a wider commitment by African countries to foster integration in all its forms on the continent, is being executed following an agreement reached recently between the Bank and the government of the central African nation, which will see the former provide US $32m for the giant telecommunication project.
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Optic fibre route project
The project, which is also being supported by the European Union, experts say, will serve as an opportunity for Chad to modernize and diversity its economy which has lately been hit by a slump in oil prices, one of its major revenue-generating resources.
“By funding the Chadian component of the Trans-Sahara fiber optic (SDR), the European Union (EU) and the AfDB offer Chad levers for the diversification of its economy,” said Dr Idriss Saleh Bachar, Minister of Posts, new technologies of information and communication.
The project, will cover a total distance of 1,510 kilometres. While 503 kilometres of the Optic Fibre cable will be laid on the Chadian side, the other 1007 kilometres will be in Niger Republic.
The optic fibre will connect with existing Nigerienne national fibre that connects into Benin and Burkina Faso. Finance has been provided to repair and upgrade the junctions to Burkina Faso and Benin. There are also two branches from Zinder, one north and one south to be built. The southern one goes to Timkin, just north of Mutum on the Nigerian border. And the northern one follows the road north to Assamaka on the Algerian border.
