By DOH JAMES SONKEY IN YAOUNDE
The Cameroon Telecommunications Regulatory Board better known by its French acronym as ART is now headed by Philemon ZO’O ZAME as Director General. Mr Zo’o before his appointment last June 8 by the President of the Republic, Paul Biya was Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Works since October 2010.
Born on 18 October 1962 at Djoum in Dja and Lobo Division in the South Region, Philemon Zo’o Zame is married and father of many children. The PhD holder in Applied Geology from the University of Yaoundé, the new ART boss equally passed through the National Engineering School in Yaoundé. He had also served as an attaché at the Presidency of the Republic.
The challenge he is inheriting at the helm of ART is huge given the giant financial, technical and human resources nature of telecommunications sector in Cameroon.
Critics blame the state for not allocating enough resources and giving the Telecommunications Regulatory Board with latest up-to-date equipments that can lace them above the giant structures which they are called upon to regulate.
It is certain that the new Director General, Philemon Zo’o Zame will benefit from the close collaboration of a telecommunications expert, Aboubakary Zourmba following renewed confidence placed on him by President Paul Biya as Deputy Director General of ART.
When The SUN visited ART offices in Yaoundé last June 9 at the dawn of the new era, staff of the telecommunications regulator in Cameroon were mobilizing to reserve a hilarious welcome to their new Director General, Zo’o Zame.
He takes over from Jean Louis Beh Mengue who has served the Cameroon Telecommunications Regulatory Board since its creation in 1999.
The former Director General of ART, Jean Louis Beh Mengue was sacked barely two hours after he rounded up a tour to assess the level of progress on construction sites of equipments to host fixed stations for the control and use of radio-electric frequencies at Nkomo, Santa Barbara and Ngoa Ekelle in Yaoundé.