(Ecofin Agency) - Cape Verde and Guinea will soon be linked by a submarine optical fiber baptized "Cap Amílcar Cabral". An agreement was inked in that regard on October 23, 2018, by the manager of Guinéenne de large bande (Guilab), the Guinean telecom infrastructures and Cabo Verde Telecom, Cape Verde's incumbent telecom operator.

The collaboration materialized at Praia by Mohamed Diallo and José Luís Livramento respectively managing director of Guilab and president of the administrative board of Cabo Verde Telecom and falls within the framework of a regional integration strategy via the telecommunications sector.

 The cost for this project estimated at about $44 million will be supported by Guilab, Cabo Verde Telecom and the various parties that will join the partnership. "We will partner will some parties interested in joining the projects such as Sierra Leone, Mauritania and other neighboring countries of the West African coast”, José Luís Livramento said. Mohamed Diallo added that the partnership was aimed at securing the Guinean International traffic and the choice of Cape Verde to concretize this ambition was due to its geographical position.  

Let’s note that before the agreement was signed, each party had conducted feasibility studies. For Cape Verde, this study was conducted by the former Agence nationale de la communication (ANAC) and for Guinea, it was conducted by Guilab.