The bank previously invested in the East African “EaSSy” submarine cable and the two satellites Rascom and New Dawn, demonstrating its support for ICT in Africa.
The project totaling US$240 million will involve the laying of 7,000 kilometres of submarine fibre optic cable between Seixal (a suburb of Lisbon) in Portugal, Accra in Ghana, and Lagos in Nigeria. The system will be based on a trunk-and-branch topology and include branching units to the Canary Islands, Morocco, Senegal, and Côte d'Ivoire. The 1.92 Tbps of available bandwidth will be leased wholesale to telecom operators and internet service providers on an open access basis, thereby encouraging competitive pricing and a large customer base.
