The $62.5 million project is running behind schedule due to “insecurity and the rocky nature of the terrain”, the country’s council of ministers was told.
The network is due to run on three routes, Markala to Timbuktu, Mopti to Gao, and Bamako – the capital of Mali – to Kourémalé, the council heard, and Huawei originally hoped to build the network in 15 months.
There will be “no financial impact on the amount of the original contract”, the government decided: in other words, Huawei must complete the project for the price agreed when the contract was signed in November 2015.
The National Broadband Network of Mali aims to speed the development and extension of new information technologies in the areas covered by the new fibre, the government said.
