Telcoms, banks, media hit as undersea cable damage causes internet outages in Nigeria, West, South Africa

Following damage to the international underwater cables that provide them with connectivity, Nigerian banks and telecommunications companies are experiencing internet outages.

The damage was reported to have affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and is causing downtime across West and South African countries.

The West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3 cables are affected.

Some bank networks in Nigeria have been down and unable to process transactions as a result of the internet outage.

Also, telecom subscribers, especially those of MTN, have been complaining of poor data experience since Thursday morning, and it worsened on Friday with downtime being the order of the day.