Bayobab partners MTN Nigeria, lands longest subsea cable in Nigeria

Bayobab, a pan-African digital connectivity solutions provider,  has partnered with MTN Nigeria to land a 45,000-kilometre subsea cable known as 2Africa in Nigeria.

The Managing Director, Bayobab Nigeria, Josephine Sarouk, said in a statement on Thursday that the cable landing station was at Mopo-Onibeju Lekki, Lagos, adding that it would directly support economic development in Africa.

Supreme News reports that the cable landing station, also known as a submarine cable station, is a facility where undersea fibre optic cables connect to terrestrial networks.

Sarouk said it would foster further growth of the 4G and 5G networks and increase broadband penetration for millions of people and businesses.

“Bayobab has invested in a myriad of submarine cables to boost much-needed broadband capacity on the continent and bolster efforts to leverage technology to connect the unconnected in Africa and beyond.

“The landing of 2Africa in Nigeria will supercharge Nigeria’s digital economy, creating space for a vibrant ecosystem bringing digital services to millions of Nigerians.

“This is in line with the government’s vision for a thriving digital economy.

“Our investment in 2Africa is part of our commitment to our customers, bringing resilience to networks and capacity due to the growing demands for digital services.

“Digital services such as Fintech, IOT, AI, and and e-learning continue to revolutionise the way customers engage with services, fueling the demand for more data,’’ she said.

Sarouk noted that this landing was further proof of the organisation’s long-held confidence in the future of the continent.

According to her, the landing of the cable means that Nigerian service providers can access capacity at an open-access cable landing station on a fair and equitable basis.

She said that this supported healthy ecosystem development by facilitating greatly improved quality and accessibility of internet connectivity for consumers and local businesses across all sectors.

The managing director said that this milestone achievement by Bayobab and MTN Nigeria would spur economic growth, innovation,, and development in the nation.

She added that 2Africa was said to be the longest underwater cable in the world, passing through three continents and 33 countries, several of which are in Africa.

According to her, it’s all about expanding the rapidly growing African digital economy and positively impacting growth across the continent.

Sarouk said that the 2Africa consortium included Bayobab, Center3, China Mobile International, Meta, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group,, and WIOCC.

Supreme News reports that aside from 2 Africa, in 2022, Google’s 12,000 km of Equiano undersea cable landed in Lagos.

Supreme News reports further that, as of 2023, Nigeria had five international submarine cables with a capacity of over 40 Tbps.

These cables include SAT3 cable, MainOne cable, Glo1 cable, ACE cable, and WACS cable.