• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Facebook finalises cable to Africa with 7 investors

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Facebook said it plans to open an office in Lagos, Nigeria, the second in Africa as part of its ongoing investment on the continent.

Nick Clegg, Vice President Policy and Communication of Facebook who speaking during a chat with Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of Nigeria, also noted that the company has secured investments from seven organisations to complete its subsea cable by 2024. When completed the cable known as 2Africa will connect Europe, the Middle East, and 16 countries on the Africa continent including Nigeria.

A spokesperson from Facebook had told BusinessDay in July 2020 that work is already commencing on preparation for the marine surveys, including desk-top studies of the detailed routing of the cable. Facebook expects component manufacture to start by the end of 2021 while the cable laying will start in 2021.

“A tech company like Facebook has invested over N300 billion in internet infrastructure from 2014 to 2018. We have investments in Africa. The subsea cable is one of the largest in the world it is the first to link both east and west Africa and it will bring more sassy capacity to the continent,” Clegg said.

Facebook has also invested $750 million in two states – Edo and Ogun – in Nigeria to improve WiFi.

The Vice President said the Nigerian government is working on regulations that will not stifle businesses.

“We’re dealing with uncharted territory in regulation – regulatory authorities facing new scenarios. The public-private collaborative effort helped craft new regulations creating space for payment licenses for non-deposit money-bank institutions,” Osinbajo said.