Home Cameroon Internet Technology Buea Cameroon: Silicon Mountain Tech Family Affected by Internet Blackout in SW and NW

There is no Internet connection in the Northwest and South West region of Cameroon at the moment i am updating this post.  This is the case in Buea the youngest and fastest growing technology city in Cameroon. 
 
Some Start ups  Affected by the internet outage in Buea       


Internet was cut off from the region on the 17 th of January 2017.  This has greatly affected business in this region that relies on the Internet for its activities. In this post, we are going to look more into the case of Buea. The Internet black out came as a surprise to many as no notification was sent before the cut off.




Welcome to Buea with NO Internet
Buea is the regional capital of the South West region. The region town is made up of many universities including the University of Buea and the Catholic University Institute that host both national and international students. 
Buea is commonly known as the Silicon Mountain of Cameroon with startups popping up every day. The name is derived from 
''silicon valley ''  the San Franciscon Bay area  of California in the US that host many startups including tech giants like Google, Facebook and Apple.  AND
 Mount Cameroon which represents the Highest Mountain in Cameroon and West Africa.
 No internet in Buea means Our Silicon Mountain is being transformed into a silicon village. This should not happen. 
   There is heat on the major internet providers ( MTN, Nexttel , Camtel and Orange) in the city of Buea  regarding the internet cut off. When shall it be over? 

Success of Startups in Buea : What is  the way forward?

The success of  Buea based startups like Njorku, Wasamudi,Agrohub  among others had created a lot of impact  in the economy of Cameroon and the African Continent as a whole.  If up front methods are not being used by those managing these start us, it means things have to go on a stand still till internet is restored in Buea. 

Active Spaces Tech Hub Affected

Active spaces which is one of the biggest technology hub offering working spaces and incubator programs to Cameroon start up is located in Buea and Douala. At Active spaces you can find software developers, artist, designers and other innovative entrepreneurs .Active spaces offer some of these start ups up to 3 million XAF. Given that fact that Active space is not a charity organisation, this moment is thus a moment for bad business to Active spaces given that most of the activities here are dependent on the Internet.

 The Big Names in Tech are not left out
Google, MTN Cameroon (Innovation Challenge), Apps Tech, Afrilabs, VC4A, The Indigo Trust, Hivos  among other  top tech companies in the world that are working in partnership with startups in Buea are  greatly affected as most tech partnerships  today are win-win partnerships.  Money had either been wasted or lost by these tech gurus as a result of no Internet in  Buea, Cameroon.

Start Ups creating Impact in the Economy of Cameroon will have to Pulse their activities.

Let us get to the reality. As mentioned earlier this region has many startups . Here are some startups you can find in Buea
1. AfroVisioN Group                    2. Agro Hub                                 3. Clone Multimedia
4. Colorfluid                                5. Fee Perfect                               6. Go-Groups
7. LCM Tours
8. Makonjoh                                9. NG                                          10. Njorku
11. PiAR                                     12. Pulse                                       13. Quick ticket
14. Skademy                               15. Skylabase                                16. Wasamundi
17. Webshinobis                          18. Yopisode                                     20. Zinger Systems
    We can continues naming. These start ups are in crisis, their workers don’t know what will become of their future, skills are being lost and above all the dollar bill and pay checks are not coming again.
Let us believe in the word of 2PAC '' Things will never be the same'' We hope to have Buea back on the Internet.  These start ups offer training and internship to the young generation creating a base for a boom in technology in the future. 

Tech Communities in Buea and Limbe in a Stand Still. 
Communities are and programs aimed at promoting  programming and entrepreneurship like Google developers group, Buea Java meet up, Docker Hub,WAAW Stem Cell,Women tech makers,Mozilla community, Elite Programmers club, Play with Python, Cameroon Programming contest among others are in a stand still due to Internet black out in Buea. A day without internet to a programmer or online entrepreneur is like 1 year darkness. Hope they will be light again. 


  The Return of Poverty  and Unemployemnt 
No internet is Buea simply means the return of poverty and unemployment in the city of tech. Many youths rely on the internet to make a living. Websites like Akwa Jobs, GCE BOx, Afrohustlers  and others need the internet to keep their activities going. Money earned cannot be collected because of no connection in banks, Money cannot be sent, Digital products cannot be sold and bought because of no internet. Should member in the tech family start a new life?

Social Media Cut Off

 The modern way to create and share information to the world in a better way compared to radio and television is Social media. At a moment where there is internet black out in Buea, people from other regions and countries in the world will not be able to get the latest happenings in Buea especially in pictures. It should be worth noting that in addition to creating and sharing information, this computer mediated technology can be used to create a career path and network through communities and networks. 

 The Social Media Harshtag
 It has been trending on the twitter with the harsh tag #bringbackourinternet and #Buea. 


 We hope the telecom companies negotiate with the government to give internet life in Buea so that Buea inhabitants can breath tech again. This is the moment of innovation and there is no minute to waste.  
   Cameroon tech community is in crisis as there is no Internet connection in Buea. Millions of dollars are being lost by advertisement companies like Facebook, Google Adwords , Skimmy links among others. The Internet community of Buea is missing the fun and wonders of the Internet.   There is no need for this; we need the dollar bill back home. #bringbackourinternet.
Over to you: Have your say in the comment area.
, ,
Share To:

Post A Comment:

7 comments so far,Add yours

  1. Anonymous28 January 2017 at 06:22

    Very Poorly written. A good number of startups you mentioned dont even exist any more. Please make some effort in research before writing in the future. However, I commend the effort.
    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Angu Ransom29 January 2017 at 04:50

      Hi, Thanks for your comment. My intentions are to point out the ''heat '' on the tech family in Buea. May i know what need to be corrected in my post?
      I will equally like you to point out some of the start ups you think are not existing. I will greatly appreciate if you contribute to make the post great. Thank you

      Delete
  2. Ray Midas30 January 2017 at 23:43

    i dont know much about Cameroon. But who the heck is that guy saying this article is not well wriiten? what is wrong about it?
    I can see a pro article written by Angu here. Who is the hater? I have emphasized this on many blog posts. Some people don’t just know how to use the website. Worst of all don’t know how to comment. I think the first thing this hater saw was something bad and I believe he can never see something good. Pointing what is wrong in this post will help other readers. Saying it is poorly written and commenting as anonymous means you don’t really have something to say but just a hater. Keep up the good work Ransom and don’t mind haters. Good luck

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Angu Ransom6 February 2017 at 08:26

      Thanks for your comment Ray. I think there is no hater here. It is just the way we express oursleves at times. The best is still to come.

      Delete
  3. SEO Company1 February 2017 at 02:06

    This article is completely awesome for me and often the one activity is done of searching content for collecting wonderful knowledge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ShipMyAuto8 February 2017 at 08:40

    vehicle shipping from usa domestic and international with ship my auto company.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment on our blog. You can select Comment as: Name/URL to comment if you want to share a link.We want our comment section to be clean.
Or comment with Facebook by clicking above

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)