‘Nigeria, W/Africa to act on new submarine cable recommendations’

The West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) has said Nigeria and other West Africa countries are well positioned to translate new global recommendations on submarine cable resilience into regional action, following the publication of reports by the Working Groups of the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience. WATRA’s Executive Secretary, Mr Aliyu Aboki who […]

The West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) has said Nigeria and other West Africa countries are well positioned to translate new global recommendations on submarine cable resilience into regional action, following the publication of reports by the Working Groups of the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience.
WATRA’s Executive Secretary, Mr Aliyu Aboki who participated as a member of the International Advisory Body, contributing a West African regulatory perspective to the global initiative established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), said Nigeria and West Africa had already begun taking steps to strengthen regional cooperation on submarine cable resilience since 2024 following outages of March that year.
Aboki says Nigeria and West Africa have moved submarine cable resilience higher on the regulatory agenda even as global advisory body publishes recommendations for strengthening critical digital infrastructure
Aboki said Nigeria and West Africa had already begun taking steps to strengthen regional cooperation on submarine cable resilience following the March 2024 outages.
The Advisory Body brought together governments, regulators, cable operators, technical experts, international organisations and other stakeholders to develop practical measures for strengthening the resilience of the submarine cable infrastructure on which the global digital economy increasingly depends.
Its three specialised Working Groups examined key challenges affecting submarine cable resilience and developed recommendations covering risk identification, incident reporting and information sharing; timely deployment and repair of submarine cables; and investment in resilient infrastructure.
Aboki said the publication of the reports comes at an important time for West Africa, where the major submarine cable disruptions of March 2024 demonstrated the vulnerability of national and regional economies to failures in critical digital infrastructure.
“The March 2024 disruptions were an important wake-up call for our region. They demonstrated that submarine cable resilience is not simply a technical or telecommunications issue. When connectivity is disrupted, the consequences extend to businesses, financial transactions, public services, trade, jobs and livelihoods across our economies,” Mr. Aboki said.

 

“West Africa’s digital economy is growing rapidly and becoming increasingly important to economic growth, productivity and employment. We therefore have to ensure that, as we scale digital opportunity, we are not also scaling vulnerability.”

 

Aboki particularly acknowledged the role of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in putting submarine cable resilience firmly on the agenda of West African telecommunications regulators immediately after the disruption.

 

“The Nigerian Communications Commission deserves particular recognition for its early leadership following the March 2024 outage. The NCC helped ensure that submarine cable resilience quickly became an important issue for discussion and cooperation among West African regulators,” Mr. Aboki said.