The West African Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) has issued a stark warning: recurring submarine cable disruptions are exposing a significant vulnerability within the region's digital economy, estimated to be worth as much as $150 billion.
Aliyu Aboki, WATRA Executive Secretary, highlighted this concern during the International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Porto, Portugal. He noted that the current network capacity across West Africa lacks sufficient resilience to withstand such incidents.
Aboki specifically referenced the disruptions experienced off the West African coast in March 2024. This event severely impacted digital economic activities throughout the sub-region.
Despite the presence of multiple international cable systems serving West Africa, including WACS, ACE, and MainOne, the March outage led to a significant weakening of connectivity for several days. Banking operations slowed, and cloud-dependent businesses across multiple countries faced disruptions.
For West Africa, with a combined GDP exceeding $800 billion, the economic repercussions are substantial. Given that over 95% of global internet traffic is transmitted via submarine cables, outages frequently result in failed transactions, reduced productivity, and diminished investor confidence.
“The lesson was immediate,” Aboki stated. “Submarine cables are not simply telecommunications infrastructure. They are foundational to economic activity,” he added.
He explained that while cable faults globally are often attributed to fishing activities, anchoring, or seabed movement, the March 2024 incident was notable for damaging several cables serving the region simultaneously. This overwhelmed existing backup systems.
Aboki also pointed to a structural mismatch that exacerbates the impact of such incidents. Internet traffic in the affected countries saw a decline of over 50% immediately following the event, with restoration taking several days in some locations. This highlighted limitations in both physical repair capabilities and administrative processes.
