Repairing West Africa’s Internet: A Five-Week Challenge

Western Africa’s internet faced a setback due to damaged undersea cables, affecting services in Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire.

The incident, reported on March 14, made many websites and online banking services unreachable.

Although some areas have seen service restoration, full repair could take up to five weeks, suggesting ongoing internet issues.

The Ghana National Communications Authority estimated this timeline after meeting with cable providers like Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, South Atlantic 3, and the West Africa Cable System (WACS).

The authority is pushing for swift vessel dispatch to the damaged sites for repair.

MainOne, which serves Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire, stabilized its network by rerouting traffic.

This temporary solution came after an unspecified external incident damaged the network off the West African coast. Undersea cables, essential for the global internet, are under threat.

Yet, companies like Google and Meta maintain internet services through investments in cables like Glo-1 and 2Africa.

Despite these efforts, disruptions occur, highlighting Africa’s digital economy’s fragility. Past cable breaks, such as WACS in 2020 and ACE in 2018, had significant impacts.

Efforts like the European Investment Bank’s funding of a new €35 million cable aim to strengthen connectivity.

Bright Simons of Ghana’s IMANI Center notes the continent’s undersea cable capacity is small.

He argues for a unified approach to connectivity infrastructure, emphasizing disaster recovery and continuity principles.

This strategy could make Africa’s digital economy more robust, showing the crucial link between infrastructure resilience and economic stability.