By Prince Osuagwu

Executive Secretary, West African Telecommunications Regulators Assembly, WATRA, Aliyu Aboki has said that West Africa’s growing digital economy is increasingly exposed to systemic risks due to weak resilience in submarine cable infrastructure and fragmented regional coordination.

He noted that a major disruption in March 2024, which affected multiple submarine cable systems along the West African coastline, revealed how vulnerable the region’s connectivity backbone has become. The incident led to widespread internet outages across several countries, disrupting banking operations, slowing fintech services, and affecting businesses reliant on cloud-based platforms.

“In some countries, internet traffic dropped by more than 50 per cent within hours, and in certain cases, services took days to fully recover,” he said.

According to him, the disruption was not caused by a single point of failure, but by overlapping vulnerabilities within key submarine cable systems serving the region, including WACS, ACE, and MainOne. He explained that while these systems provide significant capacity, their clustered landing points and routing patterns make them susceptible to simultaneous impact during incidents.

“This event demonstrated a critical gap: we are expanding capacity faster than we are building resilience,” Aboki stated.

He stressed that submarine cables are now the backbone of West Africa’s digital economy, carrying the vast majority of internet traffic that supports financial services, trade, communication, and public services.
Citing global estimates from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), he noted that more than 95 per cent of international internet traffic is transmitted through submarine cables, making their reliability central to economic stability.

Aboki said the implications of outages are no longer limited to telecommunications, but extend directly into economic performance, affecting transactions, productivity, and investor confidence.

He also highlighted structural governance challenges, noting that while submarine cable networks operate across multiple countries, regulatory systems remain largely national.

“This fragmentation creates delays during incidents. Differences in permitting, customs clearance, and emergency coordination often slow down repair efforts and extend downtime,” he said.

He warned that such inefficiencies increase operational risk and raise the cost of capital for infrastructure investment in the region.

To address these challenges, Aboki called for a coordinated regional response anchored on harmonised regulatory frameworks, joint emergency response mechanisms, and streamlined cross-border repair procedures for critical infrastructure.

He added that resilience must now be treated as a core investment requirement rather than an additional cost.

“Resilience is no longer optional. It is the foundation of a stable and investable digital economy,” he said.
According to him, global financiers are increasingly factoring resilience into investment decisions, with infrastructure systems that demonstrate faster recovery times and reduced downtime attracting stronger capital interest.

Aboki said the March 2024 disruption should serve as a turning point for the region, urging stakeholders to prioritise system redesign over incremental expansion.

He stated that West Africa’s digital economy can only achieve sustainable growth if its connectivity infrastructure is not only expanded, but also made resilient, coordinated, and future-proof.