Nigeria leads WATRA push to shield West African economies from cable outages
West African telecom regulators are pushing for coordinated infrastructure protections after a 2024 cable outage exposed critical vulnerabilities in the region's financial services and trade networks.
West Africa’s telecommunications regulators are calling for coordinated cross-border action to protect submarine cable networks. The regulators warn that recent infrastructure failures pose a direct threat to regional financial markets and trade.
The West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) issued the appeal on Monday following new reports by an International Advisory Body co-founded by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Cable Protection Committee. The regulatory push was directly triggered by severe cable disruptions in March 2024, which crippled digital connectivity across multiple nations.
For investors and corporate executives, the outages highlighted a critical systemic risk. WATRA Executive Secretary Aliyu Yusuf Aboki noted that infrastructure failures immediately cascade into the real economy, disrupting capital flows. “When connectivity is disrupted, the consequences extend to businesses, financial transactions, public services, trade, jobs and livelihoods across our economies,” he said.
Because major submarine cables land in just a few coastal hubs, a single maritime accident or natural event can simultaneously paralyze economic activity across several countries. “The disruption itself demonstrated that the risks we face are regional. An incident affecting submarine cable infrastructure can simultaneously affect connectivity and economic activity across several countries. Our response must therefore combine national action with stronger regional cooperation,” he said.
The advisory body’s reports outline operational measures to mitigate these economic vulnerabilities. Recommendations include streamlining emergency repair permits, improving access to repair vessels and spare parts, and mandating faster information sharing between governments and industry. Crucially for infrastructure investors, the framework also urges greater capital deployment into route diversity and network redundancy to eliminate single points of failure.
Nigeria is taking a leading role in driving this regional agenda. The Nigerian Communications Commission elevated cable resilience as a priority immediately after last year's outages, forcing regional cooperation. Furthermore, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, co-chaired the global advisory body alongside Professor Sandra Maximiano of Portugal’s ANACOM.
During a recent inaugural resilience summit in Abuja, Tijani helped adopt a declaration explicitly calling for investment in new cross-border cable systems. The global body has emphasized the need to mitigate risks from both natural events and accidental maritime damage. Translating these global frameworks into actionable regional policy will now be WATRA’s immediate mandate to safeguard West Africa's expanding digital economy.
