New mobile telephone lines

Telephone communications in two West African countries are to be improved this year, the World Bank institutions funding the respective projects have reported. An enhanced nationwide digital cellular network is to be developed in Cameroon, while a new digital network is to be established in Benin. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the French development agency, Agence Française de Développement, are providing funding to the sum of US $45 million for the Cameroonian network, which will complement the country's existing 450,000 phone lines, the IFC said in a statement on Wednesday. The Société Camerounaise de Mobiles, a Cameroonian cellular company, will develop and operate it, the IFC said. Benin, which has one of the world's lowest teledensity rates (inhabitants per phone line), will develop a new mobile telephone network called Benin Cell, with support to the tune of US $8.06 million from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, MIGA said in a statement last week. Benin Cell will also install an international gateway for remote areas and international connectivity. Until last year, Benin had only 49,000 fixed and mobile lines for a population of six million. There are currently only 12,000 subscribers, mainly in the south - which includes the main towns of Porto Novo (the capital) and Cotonou. The project aims to raise this number to 20,000 this year and 100,000 in a decade, MIGA added.