Major fibre cut takes banks in Nigeria and South Africa offline

Multiple African internet connectivity providers have suffered outages following submarine cable cuts.

Seacom, a South African internet connectivity provider, told its customers that it is experiencing a service-affecting outage via the West African Cable System, a submarine network.

MainOne, a major internet provider for most Nigerian banks and internet providers, also suffered a major fibre cut in Ghana that has knocked many major Nigerian banks offline, according to internal communication sent to bank staff and seen by TechCabal. As a result, customers of major Nigerian banks cannot access their banking apps or use any USSD service.

Multiple sources have also confirmed that they have been unable to use their banking apps or access the internet smoothly since Thursday morning. Sterling Bank, a Nigerian bank, has issued a communication to customers informing them that some online banking activities have been “experiencing difficulties”. Lemfi, an African remittance startup, has also informed customers that it is experiencing a downtime.

“A technical team is actively working on a solution,” someone familiar with MainOne’s business told TechCabal.

A spokesperson for MainOne declined to comment on the situation.

“Traffic is currently being rerouted via alternate paths, with no current congestion. However, services towards Europe from Maputo and South Africa are at risk should the alternate paths fail,” a statement from Seacom said.

Thursday’s internet outage extends beyond Nigeria, with South African internet users also experiencing slow speeds and unresponsive internet. According to news24, Vodacom confirmed that multiple subsea cable failures between South Africa and Europe were impacting several network providers.

Several other submarine cables such as AAE1, EIG have also suffered outages across Africa.

*This is a developing story.