By: Kristi Pelzel
Google announced its plan to fund an undersea cable from Portugal to Cape Town in South Africa, with multiple landing points, the first landing in Nigeria. The cable, Equiano, is to be named after Nigerian author Olaudah Equiano, kidnapped at 11-years-old and sold into slavery in the 1700s.
The cable, with 20 times more network capacity than the last cable, using optical switching at the fiber-pair level, will be operational in 2021. Equiano will be an addition to Glo-2, a cable that lands in Bonny and Kwa Ibo, Nigeria, and 2Africa, Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), Glo-1, Glo-2, MainOne, Nigeria Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS), SAT-3/WASC, and West African Cable System (WACS), which all land in Lagos alongside Google’s new Equiano.
Facebook is also planning to build its own undersea cable named after Simba, the character from Disney’s The Lion King, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, to accomplish this Facebook is joining 2Africa, an undersea cable project, a collaboration with China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC.
In countries where the 2Africa cable lands, service providers hope to obtain capacity in carrier-neutral data centers on a fair and equitable basis to realize their goals of going live between 2023 and 2024.
“A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea” (S.Kashyap, 2020). This type of infrastructure should bring more internet connectivity at lower costs to countries with access to these communication cables, such as Nigeria. Still, according to one source, Nigeria only uses 10% of this digital communication source now.
“In terms of utilization, across all cables, we are using less than 10% because we do not have the requisite terrestrial infrastructure to transmit this capacity from the shores across the country, particularly to the unserved and underserved areas” (F. Eleanya, 2019).
With many Nigerians still without reliable, fast, and affordable internet, how do all of these sea cables benefit Nigeria when the infrastructure won’t support their services anyway? What are Google and Facebook going to do to endure the “last-mile” infrastructure reaches the people?
Lack of Carrier-neutral Data Centres
One issue has been the lack of carrier-neutral data centers. Carrier-neutral data centers are not tied to any one service provider, providing diversity and flexibility for service providers, impacting connectivity and cost at the citizen, or individual, level.
On November 1, 2020, hope arrived! Rack Centre announced plans for a 100 million dollar (USD) expansion to create West Africa’s largest data center. This announcement comes after Actis, a London private equity firm, announced their investment in Rack Centre, taking a controlling stake in the business alongside Jagal, a Nigerian conglomerate holding that operates leading energy businesses.
“Nigeria is a key entry point for global telecommunications, content, and cloud players seeking access to the region. However, a lack of cost-effective, energy-efficient IT infrastructure has been a constraint to doing business in the region. Rack Centre, the first carrier-neutral data center in the region, will allow unrestricted connectivity between customers, telecommunication carriers, and internet exchange points within its data centers” (PR Cision, 2020)
Global Partnerships Are Important for Nigerian Growth
There are strong opinions amongst Nigerians both at home and living as part of the African diaspora about the countries digital future.
“Zuckerberg’s team has another related project named 2Africa. A “mission,” as they call it… Civilians have been relatively silent about it this time, but not because they don’t have an opinion. It looks like many civil society groups in the continent are financed by Facebook itself. Ironic, right? Well, it seems like the missionary-like good guys from up North are going to save the world again” (DataSwift, 2020).
“Big Tech corporations are wreaking havoc on the Global South. There’s a crisis in the tech ecosystem, and it’s called digital colonialism” (M.Kwet, 2018).
Looking across the headlines for the past four years, I see another way of looking at things, the case for increased global partnerships for faster change, change that supports the population issue.
In 2018 it was reported that Nigeria’s population was 198 million at a population conference in New York by Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC) Eze Duruiheoma. However, estimates of the size of the country’s population range from the World Bank’s 186 million to 205 million by UN agencies. The U.S. Census Bureau says that at the rate of 3.2% per year, there will be an estimated 402 million people in Nigeria in 2050 for space approximately 357,000 square miles, doubling the population density.
Rapid population growth poses serious issues, especially in urban areas, from economic, social, and public health challenges. Large families are not easy to afford. Resources shared in a limited geographic space become a point of contention. While some view this increase in population as a potential for more economic growth and status as a global hegemon, others believe the population increase will stall growth or worse. The rise in the population could strain Nigeria’s already strained infrastructure and services and increase poverty, unemployment, and political instability.
From a national perspective, global partnerships working in unison across different industries are a more rapid response to filling the deficits and helping the country stabilize in critical areas. Digital infrastructure will, at the core, mean more jobs and new industries, and broadly more access to education and financial opportunities.
From an international perspective, China and India, looking at countries across the continent as necessary to support and sustain life in their own countries, need more infrastructure to partner and collaborate more efficiently. Other countries, not reliant on Africa’s resources, see potential from a capitalistic perspective, with an eye on trade and computing services.
All reasons aside, Nigeria can expect to be online as the finances and forces are unifying around the next phase of growth. As long as government policy continues to support infrastructure and international commerce, and corruption, crime, and civil wars keep their distance, Google’s Equiano and Facebook’s Simba will live!
Bio: Kristi Pelzel is an international communications consultant and advisor working across U.S. and African markets. Her industry experience spans 10-years in broadcast, digital, and social media communication. Kristi holds a B.A. from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, California, and an M.A. from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
