Twenty-six cities in Gabon will be connected to the Central Africa Backbone (CAB) fibre optic network via an interlink at Libreville, ITWeb reported citing the minister of state for the digital economy, Edgard Anicet Mboumbou-Miyakou. He said the first phase of the project is nearing completion and involves collaboration by the World Bank, the National Agency for Digital Infrastructure and Frequencies in Gabon, and the National Commission for Public Interest Works for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Employment (TIPPEE).
The project falls under the fourth component (CAB4) of the broader CAB and involves the deployment of nearly 2,000 km of fibre-optic infrastructure to connect the provinces of the Estuary, Moyen-Ogooue, Ogooue-Ivindo, Ogooue-Lolo and Haut-Ogooue to the capital Libreville. A major component of the project is the construction of a national data centre to provide local data hosting and data storage.
One unit of the data centre is located in the commune of Franceville (Haut-Ogooue province), and the other in the Economic Zone of Nkok (commune of Ntoum, province of Estuaire). CAB4 is in line with the overarching goal of the entire CAB project, which is to lower the cost of using fibre in the region, while also promoting regional integration. The core objective is to interconnect Gabon with Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
