Telecommunications companies and banks in Nigeria have suffered internet outage following a damage to international undersea cables supplying them with connectivity.
Major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire were also affected just s businesses suffered downtime across West and South African countries.
The West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3 cables are affected.
Some bank networks in Nigeria have been down and unable to process transactions as a result of the internet outage. Telecom subscribers, especially, those of MTN have also been complaining of poor data experience since Thursday morning.
MTN, in a statement attributed the situation to damage of undersea cables.
“We apologize for the challenges you may be experiencing with internet speed and accessing data services at the moment.
“This is a result of damage to international undersea cables across East & West Africa. The repair process is ongoing to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Please look out for further updates,” MTN stated.
Bank networks in many banks, including Sterling and FCMB was shut down and unable not process any transactions.
According to reports from local media, the cable damage has also caused a massive internet problem in South Africa.
South African publication, My Broadband reported that WIOCC group business development head Darren Bedford confirmed that multiple undersea cables operating along Africa’s West coast are experiencing outages.
Bedford said their capacity on the Equiano cable had not been impacted. WIOCC also has capacity on the East cost EASSy cable. Due to this redundant capacity, Bedford said the outage will not impact their customers.
Vodacom, one of South Africa’s telecom operators, has also confirmed the undersea cable outages.
