Cheikh Bakhoum, General Manager of the State IT Agency (Agence de l’Informatique de l’Etat - ADIE), announced the upcoming launch of 3^rd phase of the “mainly Senegal” project which consists in a total country coverage through optic fibre. These are an additional 3,000 km of optic fibre will which be added to the 1,500 km already rolled out by ADIE. In an interview given to the Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil, Cheikh Bakhoum declared that this new project valued at USD 85 million, approximately FCfa 51 billion, will be done with China. It is part of the seven big cooperation projects jointly selected with the State of Senegal. The works will be undertaken by Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei.

According to the Managing Director of ADIE, it was in 2000 that Senegal took the decision to invest in optic fibre. The first roll-out phase for this infrastructure resulted in the construction of a network of 500 km in Dakar to link the main administrations of the state. The goal was to generate more efficiency in the management of state affairs. The optic fibre network called until then government intranet was then extended outside Dakar, to other public institutions such as hospitals, decentralised local authorities.

The second phase took place in 2012 with 1,000 km connecting “all the way to Mbour, Kaolack, Fatick, bypassing the Gambia, and going to Tamba by coming down to Kolda, Vélingara until Ziguinchor, Saint-Louis, Louga and Diourbel. On the coast, we have an optic fibre network. We thus have 1,500 km of optic fibre. This enables us to connect hundreds of administrations. Today, 700 administration buildings are connected through the ADIE network”, Cheikh Bakhoum explained.

The 3rd phase which is scheduled to start soon will be on the construction of a new data centre, the second in the country after the one built by ADIE. Equipped with a bigger storage capacity, this tool could even be used to archive Digital Terrestrial Television data (TNT), Cheikh Bakhoum declared.