The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has announced plans to spearhead a global collaboration aimed at enhancing the protection of undersea cables.
The minister made this disclosure on social media platform, X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.
These comments came against the backdrop of an undersea cable cut that has affected Ghana, Togo, Senegal, among others.
Recognising the critical role these cables play in the digital economy, Tijani emphasised the need to review international laws and foster partnerships with regional and global bodies to accelerate efforts to safeguard this vital infrastructure.
Assuring those affected by the disruptions, Tijani stated that the Nigerian Communications Commission was actively working with all relevant stakeholders to swiftly resolve the issues at hand.
According to him, the initiative marks a significant step towards ensuring the resilience and reliability of undersea cables, crucial lifelines in today’s interconnected world.
On Thursday, cuts to the undersea cable supplying broadband Internet connectivity to Nigeria and countries in the West African sub-region forced many banks and other financial institutions, as well as telecom companies and allied firms, to scale down their operations.
Cable companies—West African Cable System and African Coast to Europe in the West Coast route from Europe—have experienced faults, while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.
It has also come to light that the undersea cable cuts may remain unsolved for several weeks.
Eight West African countries have been impacted by the disruption with users in South Africa also affected, after damage to four sub-sea cables.
The cause of the cable cutting was still not known, though a shifting of the seabed was among the likely possibilities.
Already the National Communications Authority in Ghana has said that fixing the internet challenge will last a minimum of five weeks.
In an official statement, the NCA revealed that it hosted a meeting on Saturday, involving all subsea cable landing service providers and the three mobile operators affected by the situation
