The Federal Government is advocating for a review of international and regional legislation to safeguard undersea cables. It plans to collaborate with nations such as Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, and others to expedite progress in this endeavor.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, revealed this information in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.
Since Thursday, telecommunications subscribers and bank users have faced difficulties due to a subsea cable cut in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cote D’Ivoire, disrupting digital transactions and internet communications across West Africa. Mobile network operators like MTN and some banks have cited the network outage as a result of the subsea cable cut in the Atlantic Ocean.
MainOne, the submarine cable company, has stated that repairing the undersea cable cut, which has disrupted internet services in Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, and other West African and East African countries over the past four days, might take up to two weeks.
The company attributed the cut to various factors, including fishing activities and anchoring in shallow waters near the shore, as well as natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and equipment failure.
“Our preliminary analysis would suggest some form of seismic activity on the seabed resulted in a break to the cable, but we will obtain more data when the cable is retrieved during the repair exercise,” MainOne had said.
The minister, in his post, said the unfortunate incident of the submarine cable cuts would help to build anti-fragility into Nigeria’s digital economy.
He commended the leadership of MainOne and telcos in their efforts to limit the impact of the cuts.
“This is also an opportunity for us to review international laws and collaborations to adequately protect undersea cables and I will be engaging regional and global bodies to accelerate efforts on this crucial agenda,” Tijani said.
He assured those experiencing disruption that the Nigerian Communication Commission is working with all key stakeholders to resolve the matter in the shortest possible time.