As an entity integrated inside the Ministry of Education, Scientific Research and Technologies of Information and Communication, ICT is responsible for overseeing the telecom sector development in Mauritania and for implementing all policies necessaries to cover the population needs.
“TIC can help to accelerate the achievement of most of the 17 Goals Sustainable Development (SDG) or 2030 United Nations agenda, says Mohamed Lemine Salihi, director of ICT. “It makes it possible to achieve results that would have been unthinkable less than ten years ago, in terms of scale, speed, quality, accuracy and cost”
“Our main challenge in Mauritania is the fact that we have a huge territory with a very low population density. This poses challenges in the coordination of infrastructure development”, admits Lemine. “The development occurs so fast in our sector that I’m afraid the population will find it hard to keep pace with it”
The telecom sector in Mauritania is currently into a huge step as it is developing some of the key projects of the government, including the Warcip project that will enhance connectivity with the construction of the country’s backbone cable and the digitalisation of the government, which is “difficult to implement because we have a very high number offices and we lack of trained human resources”, explains Lemine.One of the main concern of ICT director is also cyber security. “It is again a question of training. We don’t have the necessary software technicians to cover the main challenges Mauritania will be facing.
TIC has already installed 1,700 km of optical fibre cable and a 4.000 km earth cabling is to be created in the next 3 years connecting the country internationally. The e-government project is to be implemented by the end of 2020. A parallel project of security will be the pilot test for cyber security in Mauritania.
Lemine explains that “in Mauritania we have currently three licences for mobile operators: Mauritel, Mattel & Chinguitel. However, we are opening the sector to investors that want to open their own Internet Service Provider in Mauritania whether, in a particular town or for a particular sector. For example, an investor can open an ISP through our simple authorisation regime for business companies”.
“We are searching for international investors and professionals for the development of the ICT sector in Mauritania. Our legal framework ensures equal open access to all investors. It is a unique opportunity to implement a business in ICT in Mauritania”, underlines Lemine.