The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has disclosed that 50 countries will be hosted in Nigeria as it holds its inaugural International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Abuja, the nation’s federal capital.
The ITU Deputy Secretary-General, Tomas Lamanauskas, announced this during a press conference, stating that over 250 relevant stakeholders will participate in the event to address solutions to global cable disruptions.
Nairametrics previously reported on November 29, 2024, that the ITU and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) had launched the International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience to enhance the resilience of this vital telecommunication infrastructure.
The Advisory Body is co-chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and Prof. Sandra Maximiano, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Communications Authority of Portugal (ANACOM).
The first virtual meeting of the Body was held in December 2024, ahead of the Submarine Cable Resilience Summit, scheduled for February 26 and 27, 2025, in Abuja, Nigeria.
Resilience of Cable Infrastructure
Speaking at the press conference attended by Nairametrics, Bosun Tijani, emphasized that as Nigeria continues to push for a stronger digital economy, it is crucial for relevant stakeholders to ensure the resilience of cable infrastructure, which he described as “the real backbone for the digital economy.”
“Nigeria is driving our economy towards becoming a $1 trillion economy, which is a commitment that President Bola Tinubu has already made and the entire Cabinet is working towards,”he added.
Tijani stressed that the Nigerian government believes that cable infrastructure and anything that strengthens its economic agenda is of great importance.
The minister said he sees the strong role submarine cable infrastructure plays in digital technologies, highlighting that the federal government is ready to explore ways to accelerate the country’s digital economy, making it a lot more competitive and value-driven.
“There’s no economy that is a stand-alone economy. Every economy in the world today are linked.
“And because of that, we must also take global leadership, ensuring that we secure a critical part of how we run our economies today,” he said.
Why the Inaugural Submarine Cable Summit is Important
Explaining the significance of the summit, Lamanauskas said, “the digital world really depends on submarine cables, because they carry the bulk of the traffic and ensure that the traffic across the continents is carried around and the continents are connected digitally.”
He added that “even the traffic that goes up to the satellites goes back to the submarine cables to be fastly carried across the globe, because that’s the technology that makes sure that across long distances people can have very fast connections.”
He stated that the summit was partly inspired by “the cuts and undersea disruptions that happened in West Africa in March last year, affecting 13 countries in West Africa” and other parts of the world.
He said the development occurred because “the four submarine cables were cut off the coast due to the natural causes of the underwater earthquakes.”
He commended the Nigerian government for “showing leadership in this area, having agreed to bring the world together to brainstorm on possible solutions to cable infrastructure resilience.”
He also acknowledged the Nigerian government for leading the way by recognizing submarine cables as critical national infrastructure.
“We expect 50 countries at this summit.
“We’re expecting around 250 people here in Abuja, experts from both governments as well as the private sector, the biggest submarine cable layers, the governments through which these cables are passing, as well as different vendors, academia, others who really are engaged in these debates to come here in Abuja to discuss how to strengthen cable resilience,” he said.
According to him, stakeholders will examine how to respond to disruptions through crisis management, recovery efforts, innovations in technology, and maintenance procedures.
He added that the ITU will advise and ensure that countries are not dependent on just one cable, so that when disruption happens, they are not fully disconnected from the world.
What You Should Know
In March last year, several African countries experienced a digital blackout as internet and telecommunication services were cut off due to submarine cable damage.
- This disruption affected businesses across banks, stock exchanges, and mobile money transactions, among several others.
- The cable damage occurred somewhere around Senegal and Ivory Coast, with similar disruptions near Portugal.
Telecommunications companies and banks in Nigeria were hit by an internet outage as a result of damage to international undersea cables supplying them with connectivity.
