Banks in Nigeria have been affected by damage to submarine cables, causing internet outages in parts of Africa.
The submarine cable cuts, on Thursday, affected subsea cable providers and disrupted internet traffic in major parts of the continent.
According to reports, the damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, affecting submarine communications cables, including West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3.
The issue is said to be causing downtime across West and South African countries, affecting telecommunications networks as well as banks in Nigeria.
In a notice to customers on Thursday, Sterling Bank apologised to customers over the effect of the network disruption affecting transactions.
“We are aware that you may be experiencing difficulties trying to transfer funds, reach our customer care team, or transact via USSD and genuinely apologize for the effect of this on your day,” Sterling Bank said.
“We are fully committed to providing the best service and are working tirelessly to resolve this issue. You have our promise to notify you as soon as it has been fixed.”
Speaking to newsmen, Rasheed Bolarinwa, president, Association of Corporate and Marketing Communications Professionals of Banks in Nigeria (ACAMB), said the situation impacted connectivity across many banks.
“Yes, it did impact connectivity across a substantial number, if not virtually all the Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria as banking operations were substantially affected for most parts of today,” Bolarinwa said.
Bolarinwa said substantial progress is being recorded in gradual resolution of the glitch.
MTN Group, Africa’s largest telecommunications provider, also said its services in several West African countries have been disrupted.
In a statement on Thursday, the telco giant said the ongoing disconnection experienced by its customers is due to breaks in multiple major undersea cables.
On February 22, 2024, Bayobab, a pan-African digital connectivity, partnered with MTN Nigeria to land a 45,000km subsea cable in the country.
