Last Thursday, both the telecommunications and banking sectors faced a sudden disruption, leaving customers stranded and services impaired. The cause was traced back to a cut in the undersea cable carrying data network from Europe to Africa, occurring somewhere near Cote D’Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean. This incident affected several key subsea systems along Africa's western seaboard, including WACS, ACE, MainOne, and SAT3.

The impact rippled across Nigeria and other African countries, disrupting banking and telecom services. Seacom, a South African internet provider, and MainOne, a major internet provider for Nigerian banks and ISPs, experienced significant disruptions. MainOne even had to issue internal communications to its staff and customers, appealing for patience during the outage.

Notably, telecom giant MTN and other operators were also heavily affected, with the WACS cable, crucial for MTN's internet services, being impacted. Initial assessments indicated that it could take two weeks or more to repair the damage, causing panic within the affected industries.

Contrary to expectations, services began to recover sooner than anticipated, with significant improvements observed between Monday and Tuesday. Telecom companies in Nigeria, particularly, worked tirelessly to restore services, with engineers going beyond their normal schedules to minimize disruptions.

The Association of Licensed Telecom Operator in Nigeria (ALTON) confirmed that service restoration efforts were almost complete. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) echoed this sentiment, stating that approximately 90% of peak utilization capacities had been restored.

MainOne promptly activated its maintenance agreement with Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement (ACMA) to address the issue. Similarly, the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) played a pivotal role in restoring connectivity. WIOCC's CEO highlighted their swift response and the deployment of additional capacity to support affected operators and hyperscalers.

Overall, despite the initial shock and disruptions, collaborative efforts among telecom companies and infrastructure providers helped expedite the restoration process and mitigate the impact on customers and businesses.

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