When the Equiano subsea fibre optic cable landing in Nigeria is fully set up and goes live in five months, its impact is to be felt beyond the shores of Lagos, and across the country through improved connectivity and benefits of Africa’s internet economy projected to reach $180 billion by 2025. This much was declared last week during an event to mark the Cable’s landing in Nigeria, following an earlier stop in Togo.
The Equiano cable, named after Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist who was enslaved as a boy, is the third private international cable owned by Google and the 14th subsea cable it has invested in, and WIOCC is the cable landing partner in Nigeria. Equiano connects Portugal and South Africa, running along the West Coast of Africa, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries.
Africa’s digital transformation and its internet economy – projected to grow from $115 billion in 2020 to $180 billion in 2025 and $712 billion by 2050 – depend on well-developed connectivity infrastructure
It is described as a state-of-the-art infrastructure based on space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology, with 12 fibre pairs and design capacity of 144 terabytes per second (Tbps), approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve the region. Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fibre-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching, according to technical documents on it.
“It will make high quality internet available at an affordable price to Nigerians,” said Chris Wood, chief executive officer of WIOCC.
Faster internet speeds of up to six times what is currently experienced in Nigeria, and also at reduced costs of up to 21 percent, all contributing to drive the digital economy are some of the benefits expected from the arrival in Lagos of the Equiano. The Cable, when deployed in Nigeria, is to lead to the creation of 1.6 million jobs along the value chain within the next three years, while also adding an estimated $10 billion to Nigeria’s GDP.
A World Bank study in 2009, had concluded that a 10 percentage point increase in fixed broadband penetration would increase GDP growth by 1.21 percent in developed economies and 1.38 percent in developing ones. In 2016, another report noted that in almost every study, despite the methodology and whether it was cross-country or single country, found a positive economic impact from fixed broadband.
With millions of (mostly young) Nigerians actively using the internet to create economic opportunities for themselves, through remote work, content creation and other internet-based ventures, investments such as the Equiano cable by Google, can give more Nigerians better competitive advantage in the global digital economy. The cable itself, has been described as a state-of-the-art subsea cable, which is to become an important element in meeting Nigeria’s current and future international connectivity demands.
Globally, sub-Saharan Africa remains the most underserved region in terms of internet infrastructure. Penetration stands at 29 percent, while for the entire continent (including North Africa), it is 40 percent. According to the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, $100 billion in private and public investment is needed to achieve universal and affordable access to good quality broadband in Africa by 2030, according to an Economic Impact Report commissioned by Google ahead of the Cable’s landing.
While the report notes even though Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy, the share of people using the internet was approximately 35.5 percent as of 2020 – more than double what it was in 2012, but as at February 2022, there were 144 million internet users according to data BusinessDay gleaned from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Across much of the country, people lack access that is affordable, reliable and of good quality. Poor connectivity hinders economic growth, poverty reduction, human development and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Equiano will have a direct impact on connectivity in Nigeria following its landing, resulting in faster internet speeds, improved user experience, and reduced internet prices. Internet speeds in the country are expected to grow almost six fold from 11 Mbps in 2021 to 65 Mbps in 2025, while retail internet prices are forecast to decline by 21 percent over the same period. Improved speeds and lower prices are expected to boost penetration by 6 percentage points over this period, according to the Economic Impact Assessment Report.
By increasing international bandwidth, Google projects the Equiano will indirectly broaden access to the internet in Nigeria, thus contributing to narrowing the digital divide within the country, as well as between it and other regions that currently have more developed connectivity infrastructure.
Africa’s digital transformation and its internet economy – projected to grow from $115 billion in 2020 to $180 billion in 2025 and $712 billion by 2050 – depend on well-developed connectivity infrastructure, it notes.
Breaking down the GDP and job projections, it is noted that between 2022 and 2025, average year-on-year real growth in Nigeria is expected to increase by 0.52 percentage points due to Equiano. By 2025, real GDP in the country is forecast to be higher by $10.1 billion than it would have been without the cable. Between 2022 and 2025, Equiano is expected to lead to an additional $25.3 billion in total economic output in Nigeria.
Improved connectivity also accelerates job creation. Between 2022 and 2025, Equiano should indirectly create 1.6 million new jobs – equivalent to 330,000 per year over the assessment period – driven by the expansion of the digital economy and peripheral sectors, the report notes.
“The cable we are landing today carries more than 20 times the capacity of any other cable that has been delivered in Africa,” said Chris Wood, chief executive officer of WIOCC, during an event to mark the landing.
Wood also noted the cable is “the first truly open access cable to land in Africa. Others that landed in the last 15 years had limitations,” but the Equiano cable enables as many people and companies (including local telecom operators) as possible to connect to the cable and utilise it for their network needs.
“We are going to make sure it is available to everyone to use,” Wood emphasised.
Read also: Google’s subsea cable targets heart of Nigeria’s internet market
Nigeria, the largest digital market in Africa, according to data from the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) had 144 million internet users as at February 2022, while broadband subscriptions were 78 million, representing 40.91 percent penetration.
In Nigeria, like other parts of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced human interaction to the bare minimum, emphasised the importance of digital communication that is driven largely by the internet. Infrastructures such as the Equiano cable that is landing in Nigeria, would make internet connectivity better in the country, and ultimately cheaper.
“We have a lot of Nigerians that are using the internet to grow their businesses, to broadcast themselves, learn new skills and to share their content with the world through video platforms like YouTube,” Juliet Ehimuan, director, West Africa at Google told BusinessDay on the sidelines of the event. “When you have the capacity to increase (internet) speed and prices come down, a lot of people will have more activities and that would generate growth and jobs.”
Ehimuan also stated that “Equiano is set to make an enduring contribution towards the development of Nigeria’s communications infrastructure and today marks another major step in its development. We look forward to honouring our commitment to be part of Africa’s digital transformation.”
Phase3 telecom, West Africa telecom and Galaxy backbone, were noted among local players that would be partnered in stretching the connectivity potentials of the Equiano cable to reach major cities in Nigeria. Other industry players, as BusinessDay learnt, will be accommodated whenever they choose to plug in.
When BusinessDay specifically asked Ehimuan how much of a threat the Cable would be to local operators who have also invested in internet services, “It benefits them,” she said. “It doesn’t threaten them in any way and all our initiatives are always in partnership with stakeholders who are very important strategic partners.”
She explained that while it is landing this cable with a local partner (WIOCC), it is looking to partner with others to actually distribute that capacity. “We will be looking to engage with the entire ecosystem,” she said.
Consequently, as the Economic Impact Assessment report noted, strong connectivity, more affordable and reliable internet access can help Nigeria diversify its economy away from oil, unlocking new pathways to collective prosperity. For Nigeria’s population, businesses, and government, the digital economy can be a game changer and a key lever to accelerate growth, industrialise, innovate and improve people’s lives.
But, what is in this for Google anyway? “We believe in being a part of the internet growth because if the internet grows, a lot of stakeholders including Google will benefit,” said Ehimuan. “We believe in investing and adding value, focusing on the user first and others will follow, which is our internal philosophy.”
As Google says it commits to training millions of people with digital skills to use the internet and earn a living for themselves, it considers investing in availability of the internet itself as a logical step in the process.
