South Africa’s leading internet service provider, Seacom, has warned customers of service disruptions due to the disconnection of the West African Cable System, a vital undersea network.
MainOne, a key internet provider for financial institutions and service providers in Nigeria, is similarly facing major challenges due to fiber optic cable breaks in Ghana. The incident crippled a number of major banks in Nigeria, leaving customers unable to access banking apps or avail USSD services, as detailed in some banks’ internal communications.
Reports from various sources confirm widespread difficulties in accessing banking apps and seamless internet usage since Thursday morning. Banks such as Starling Bank have told customers about the hurdles to online banking, while African money transfer startup Remfi has admitted it is experiencing downtime.
A source familiar with MainOne’s operations hinted that MainOne’s technical team is actively working on this issue. However, MainOne has not provided any further comment at this time.
Seacom issued a statement indicating efforts to reroute traffic through alternative channels to alleviate congestion. Nevertheless, if these alternative routes fail, services from Maputo and South Africa to Europe will continue to be affected.
The impact of Thursday’s internet outage has spread beyond Nigeria, with internet users in South Africa also experiencing slow speeds and unresponsive connections. Vodacom has confirmed that multiple submarine cable failures have occurred between South Africa and Europe, impacting various network providers.
Additionally, failures have been reported in several other submarine cables across Africa, including AAE1 and EIG.
George Ogunleye
