By Brian Mboh
Cameroon Telecommunications, CAMTEL, and local digital experts recently met in Yaounde, with the aim of boosting data sovereignty.
The ceremony held under the theme: “Data sovereignty and collaboration of local actors for the rise of digital in Cameroon.”
The CAMTEL “Cloud Day”, gathering at Zamengoue, Yaounde VII, Subdivision, that took place for three days, brought together digital experts within government ministries, State structures, private sector, the military, start-up and other data generating entities.
Speaking at the ceremony, was Senior Cybersecurity, Digital Transformation and Space Strategy Advisor. Dr Anye Divine, who encouraged government services and other institutions to host their data at the CAMTEL Data Centre.
In his opening speech, focused on “Data sovereignty and securing critical infrastructures in Cameroon”, the international consultant on cybersecurity and stated that the CAMTEL Data Centre “is not just digital infrastructure, but a national economic engine”.
He added that, it will be cost effective for institutions to host their data at the CAMTEL Data Centre, rather than running their own data centers.
He said this will help build national credibility through consolidation “because a fragmented hosting environment dilutes national capacity, while a unifying hosting strategy amplifies. It also amplifies disaster very, national redundancy and threat visibility.
As articulated during the ceremony, “a sovereign national data ecosystem unlocks national economic acceleration, value stays inside the country, jobs grow in the ICT sector, local innovation thrives, cloud adoptions become affordable and inter-national investors gain confidence,” he said. “Data sovereignty is not a constrain, it is a strategic comparative advantage,” he stated, adding that: “No nation attains cyber sovereignty without eco system unity. We must synergise across government agencies, private sector operators, financial institutions, academia, regulators and international partners”
“Our strength will come from our ability to align infra structure, standards and rational models on a single sovereignty digital backup,” he stated, noting that Cameroon should aim to be the digital leader in Central Africa.
The Director of ICT and Posts Telecommunications, Tsafak Pauline, who was a speaker at the event, said the event is an opportunity to review the importance of protecting personal data in the Cameroonian context and the implementation of the law relating to the protection of personal data. “The CAMTEL Data Centre is a crucial mechanism for protecting national data, because we have observed that when your data is not stored in Cameroon, for example, you risk being subject to the laws of other countries where the data is stored, and these laws can be contradictory. We have seen cases of certain laws that conflict with Cameroonian laws, for example, regarding the consent of the data subject when their personal data must be processed, Tsafak said. She added that: “We therefore encourage entities established in Cameroon, notably businesses to store data in Cameroon, as the infrastructures exists, so that data processing can be simplified. This is because when data is stored abroad, processing is subject to several legislations, which may be contradictory”.
Meanwhile, one of the participants, Emmanuel Warri, Technical coordinator of a start-up said: “Hosting data within our own environment where we have control over regulations and security is essential because it allows us to make informed decisions, ” he said. “For a start-up like mine, which runs a platform called Alternative Credit Score, this is particularly important. The platform processes financial and electronic data, including information from the new mobile money ecosystem, in a way that enables financial institutions to assess individuals for credit. When someone applies for a loan, the system helps classify them into different categories to determine their eligibility,” he said.
About CAMTEL Data Center
CAMTEL Data Centre is a Tier 3 carrier-neutral facility. It is designed to support local data storage and contribute to the digital regional economy, boasting high-performance security solutions for data storage or processing.
The facility is the only Tier 3 certified data centre in Central Africa, linked to a robust terrestrial fibre net-work, which guarantees 100% uptime and zero downtime. This makes it an ideal choice for telecoms or content providers seeking colocation, cloud hosting, and other data service.
