Cameroon has entered an agreement with the Russian developer of office software “My Office” to provide and introduce 1M software licenses of My Office Education in schools and pre-school facilities in Cameroon over the course of 10 years. This agreement was entered into by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Cameroon which has been described as the first export contract on educational software for My Office of this scale. The agreement was reached during a business mission to Cameroon.
Speaking on the development, the Cameroonian Minister of Elementary Education Laurent Etoundi said there was a need for office software in schools and announced the start of a pilot project to introduce solutions from My Office into educational institutions of the country. The first 500 licenses of My Office Standard have already been sent to the Republic’s Ministry of Education for testing. The introduction process will start with 10 schools in different provinces of the country. Pre-school facilities, elementary and secondary schools of Cameroon will receive My Office software for free. Higher education institutions will be able to buy any components of My Office ecosystem at a 93% discount. The same conditions apply to educational institutions in Russia. Individual users will have a chance to use mobile versions of My Office distributed for free in app stores on smartphones running on Android and iOS.
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“Cameroon plays a special role in Africa. This is a country with the most highly developed system of education. The government made a great effort to double the number of elementary school graduates in the last 20 years for it to reach 4.4 million children today. Over the same period the country has experienced an Internet boom — and now almost a quarter of all population has access to the global network. The Russian software “My Office Education” can reach our goals in providing pupils with convenient and secure solutions required for the modern educational process,” announced Laurent Etoundi, the Minister of Elementary Education.
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The Agreement with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Cameroon will mark the start of productive cooperation between the company and government institutions of this African country. The results of the projects will be used in making decisions on introducing My Office in other government agencies of Cameroon. “Everywhere in the world, but especially in Africa and the Middle East, Russian IT is associated with great quality, security, and reliability. Our contract with the government of Cameroon will turn a new page in the history between our countries. Today, there are about 1,000 private and public elementary and secondary schools in Cameroon, with 500,000 students graduating every year. We are happy to share a modern and advanced solution with the educational system of Cameroon. It will help them resolve the issue of computer literacy in a most systematic way,” said Dmitry Komissarov, CEO of the developer company “My Office”.
“Today the population of Cameroon is over 25.5 million people, 60% of them under 25 years of age while the median age is just 18.5 years. This is the audience that will define social, business and political life of the country in the nearest future. We want to help them learn about the latest technology and software and we believe that My Office products are a great choice for it,” said Jafar Hilali, Director of Carousel Finance SA, master partner of My Office for distribution in the countries of Africa. The Republic of Cameroon is one of the fastest-growing nations of Africa. In 2018, the country’s GDP was $38.6 billion, and this figure has grown by more than 3.5 times in the last 20 years.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry