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African champions Cameroon have agreed a five-year deal with mobile communications giant Orange, despite their early exit from the World Cup.
The company will the side’s official sponsor for the 2006 World Cup as well as the 2004 and 2006 African Nations’ Cups.
Jean-Paul Gandet, general manager of Orange, surprised many during the official launch ceremony of the company’s operations in Cameroon by disclosing the tie-up.
Orange-Cameroon has just taken over from the first Cameroon private mobile telephone company, Société Camerounaise de Mobiles (SCM), and its brand Mobilis.
Though Mobilis was the one of the official sponsors of the team during the last African Nations Cup, nobody had expected its successor announce a partnership so soon.
Mobilis had been using striker Patrick Mboma for promotional activities for a number of years.
