What we know about Thursday’s nationwide internet downtime
Telcos, banks, social media, others affected
Nigerians and citizens of other West African nations on Thursday (yesterday) experienced simultaneous internet outage that rendered them inactive online for the better part of the day.
According to reports and intelligence gathered from multiple sources, the downtime was as a result of damaged subsea cables which occurred in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal, affecting several West African countries.
Aside Nigeria, other affected West African countries include; Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Cote d’Ivoire.
NewsClick Nigeria reports that most affected are telecommunications subscribers, social media and bank application users who were stranded for hours as the disruption paralysed digital transations and internet communications.
A Chief Technology Innovation Officer (CTIO) at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Ben Roberts in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday said the damage was ‘very bad’. His tweets states below;
Africa Submarine Cable Situation Report – 14/3/24
Situation is Very bad.
East Coast of Africa to Europe
Seacom/TGN – Cut AAE1 –
Cut EIG –
Cut All cut in Red Sea
West Coast of Africa to Europe
WACS – Fault
Mainone – Down
ACE – Fault
SAT3-Down
Faults near Abidjan
Internet service providers, telcos, banks message customers
Meanwhile, some internet service provides, telecommunications companies and banks have reached their customers to explain cause of the service disruption they might be experiencing.
Seacom, a South African internet connectivity provider, told its customers that it is experiencing a service-affecting outage via the West African Cable System, a submarine network.
MainOne, a major internet provider for most Nigerian banks and internet providers, also suffered a major fibre cut in Ghana that has knocked many major Nigerian banks offline, according to internal communication sent to bank staff.
Polaris and Sterling Banks also reached out to their customers via email, assuring them that efforts were in top gear to restore normalcy.
“Dear Esteemed Customer,
We are aware that you may be experiencing difficulties accessing VULTe and Polaris Xperience.
Please be assured that all hands are on deck to restore normalcy.
We apologize for any inconvenience and will notify you once services are restored.
Thank you for making Polaris Bank your preferred Bank,” a message from Polaris Bank on Thursday night reads.
In a similar message, Sterling Bank told customers that “We are aware that you may be experiencing difficulties trying to transfer funds, reach our customer care team, or transact via USSD and genuinely apologize for the effect of this on your day.
We are fully committed to providing the best service and are working tirelessly to resolve this issue. You have our promise to notify you as soon as it has been fixed.
Got complaints or transaction dispute that needs urgent attention? Please use our self-service complaints channel.
For other enquiries or support, please DM us on social media @sterlinghelp or send us an email at [email protected] / [email protected].
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to serve you better.”
Network disruptions caused by cable damage have occurred in Africa in recent years. However, “today’s disruption points to something larger (and) this is amongst the most severe,” said Isik Mater, director of research at NetBlocks, a group that documents internet disruptions around the world.
NetBlocks said data transmission and measurement shows a major disruption to international transits, “likely at or near the subsea network cable landing points.”
NCC confirms damage, says repairs has commenced
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says repairs have commenced on damaged subsea cables that negatively impacted telecommunications services in several countries, including Nigeria.
Director of Public Affairs of the Commission, Reuben Muoka, confirmed the development in a statement on Thursday.
“A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, have negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa,” NCC said.
“Cable companies – West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe have experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.
“Similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE1), are said to have been cut at some point around the Red Sea, resulting in degradation of services across on these routes.
“In Nigeria and other West African countries, internet access and speed have experienced disruptions in the networks of service providers in the affected countries.”
Internet service restored
NewsClick Nigeria can confirm that internet services was late Thursday night restored. A check on bank apps, social media platforms also confirmed restoration of internet services as digital transactions are now seamless functioning, and Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter) are all back up.
