CAMTEL showcases company’s strides in promoting gender equality.

After putting up a strong showing during the march past at the 20^th May Boulevard in Yaounde, the CAMTEL female staff later converged at the CAMTEL Club for the second phase of the celebration.  

In her welcome address to the women and other guests, the president of CAMTEL Women Association, Gisele Ntsama Nzang, while lauding the management for efforts in empowering women, said the celebration was a moment of reflection and celebration of women who played excellent roles.

She disclosed that CAMTEL women had engaged in weeklong activities in the buildup to Women’s Day, including donation to old people, cooking competition among others.

Ntsama Nzang thus congratulated all the women who took part in the activities. She said the theme for this year’s celebration translates the importance of women in the world of digitalisation. She thus hopes women will use digitalisation in their activities for their empowerment and socioeconomic growth of society.

Noting that digital inclusion is the key to gender equality, Ntsama Nzang said it is time to embrace the digital world, adding that CAMTEL has the capacity to drive this digital transformation.

Reducing inequalities between men and women

The General Manager of CAMTEL, Judith Yah Sunday epse Achidi, in her address to the female staff, said Women’s Day is dedicated to the promotion of women's rights “with the aim of reducing inequalities between men and women”.

She said “it is also an opportunity to reflect on the progress made, to call for change and to celebrate the acts of courage and determination of ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and their communities”.

The General Manager added that as a corporate citizen and the secular arm of the State in the telecommunications sector, CAMTEL is fully exercising the missions assigned to it by the State with regard to the reduction of gender inequalities and the inclusion of women in the various socio-economic and technological processes and transformations.

“As proof, through the presidential decree of December 14, 2018, I was brought to the head of our beautiful and illustrious company as General Manager. Several other women, thanks to their skills, magnanimity and tenacity hold high positions of responsibility within CAMTEL,” Judith Achidi said.

“By way of illustration, we have a woman Technical Adviser, a woman Inspector, six women Directors, 42 women Deputy Directors, Heads of Department and regional representatives, hundreds of women Heads of Service, Head of Section and so on,” the General Manager added.

She went ahead to say that: “The picture painted above, although encouraging and impressive, is far from being considered a definitive victory; so many challenges to equality continue to challenge us. This 2023 edition of International Women's Day, with its theme of Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality, for an Inclusive Digital World, provides an opportunity to salute and celebrate the women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education”.

Laudable successes at CAMTEL

In a retrospective look at years that preceded 2023, the General Manager said CAMTEL recorded remarkable successes, “thanks to the participation and mobilisation of women and all CAMTEL staff in general”.

“I refer here to the Certification of CAMTEL to the ISO 9001/2015 standard, which has greatly contributed to conferring more credibility and more anchorage to the deployment of the incumbent telecommunications operator of Cameroon. Among the successes, we cannot fail to salute the effort and constant support of the Government of the Republic with the constant support of our technical supervision, which has granted us three concession agreements for the operation of wireline networks, mobile and transport dated March 4, 2020,” she disclosed.

“On the economic and financial level, speaking specifically about the place of CAMTEL in the microcosm of public companies in Cameroon, I am pleased with the strategic position revealed by the National Institute of Statistics, NIS, which ranks CAMTEL first, taking into account the important criteria that are: payroll, solvency and turnover,” she added.

Judith Achidi went further to say that: “The signing on December 14, 2022 of the National Roaming (Local Roaming) between CAMTEL and one of the private operators has helped to expand and extend BLUE in areas that were previously not covered by our network. I can assure you with the greatest enthusiasm that this infrastructure-sharing is working well and is truly operational”.

“In terms of human resources, I would like to doff my hat to each employee for their resilience and the efforts they make on a daily basis to preserve our company's brand image, its place of choice in the national arena, and the maintenance of its vision as the leader in digital transformation by 2025 in sub-Saharan Africa,” she noted.

The event also featured award of prizes to winners of the cooking contest, feasting and general merriment. It was spiced with musical presentations.