Achieving latency of just 11ms between Lagos and Accra, this terrestrial route will ensure faster, more resilient data delivery for content, cloud, and communication services - a significant milestone in West Africa’s digital infrastructure resilience.
This initiative responds directly to the vulnerabilities exposed in March 2024, when a rockfall off the West African coast damaged multiple subsea cables, causing widespread connectivity outages across the region, where to date no terrestrial solutions have been available to provide alternate restoration options in many parts of West Africa.
“This route reinforces our commitment to building a truly resilient and secure digital backbone across West Africa,” said Stanley Jegede, executive chairman of Phase3. “The events of March 2024 made it clear that Hyperscalers, CDNs, and operators alike require redundancy on land, not just undersea. With this new terrestrial link, Lagos’ digital ecosystem can be future-proofed, and ensure no nation east of Côte d’Ivoire is digitally isolated again.”
The new route forms the cornerstone of a broader East-West terrestrial strategy, offering reliable inland capacity for those 300 million people affected by the subsea failures. This route provides a resilient, high-performance alternative to subsea-only infrastructure enabling digital access for governments, enterprises, and citizens alike.
“This collaboration between multiple partners offers strategic network resilience for the entire region,” added Craig Lowe, chief growth officer at Phase3. “This route will become the primary inland path from Nigeria to Accra, enabling redundant pathways for critical content delivery and cloud traffic.”
The successful configuration, activation and testing of this route was made possible by close collaboration with regional infrastructure partners CSquared and SBIN, ensuring robust fibre deployment through Ghana, Togo, and Benin.
“We’re proud to partner to extend our existing high-capacity terrestrial infrastructure beyond Ghana and Togo” said Ian Paterson, CEO of CSquared. “This project proves what’s possible when regional infrastructure providers come together to build for scale, speed, and redundancy. It’s a significant step toward a digitally connected West Africa.”
“SBIN is committed to enabling cross-border fibre networks that support growth across West Africa,” said of Ormar Gueye Ndiaye, CEO of SBIN. “Our collaboration ensures Benin plays a key role in regional fibre resilience and helps position our national infrastructure as a gateway for high-speed, reliable data transmission.”
Phase3’s terrestrial strategy ensures hyperscale data centres, cloud platforms, and CDNs in Lagos - a critical West African hub - can now be directly and reliably connected to the rest of the region. The Ready for Service (RFS) date and commercials will be announced in due course; however, it is a key building block in extending fibre reach across ECOWAS.
While this route reaffirms our collective role as pan-African digital infrastructure leaders, it sets a new benchmark for terrestrial connectivity in West Africa and underlines the importance of regional partnerships in achieving new levels of resilience.
About Phase3
Phase 3 is a leading technology and digital infrastructure company shaping the future of connectivity in West Africa. Headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria, Phase3 delivers high-performance fibre, media, and fintech solutions across the ECOWAS region.
With over 20 years of industry leadership, Phase3 has evolved from a national fibre operator into a multi-vertical platform enabling the next generation of cloud, , digital finance, and public-sector technologies. Its expansive terrestrial fibre network spans Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Niger, and Senegal, providing low-latency, high-capacity routes trusted by hyperscalers, governments, CDNs, and enterprises.
About SBIN
Société Béninoise d’Infrastructures Numériques (SBIN) is Benin’s national digital infrastructure operator, dedicated to expanding broadband access and supporting the country’s digital transformation. It manages a national fibre backbone and delivers fixed, mobile (under the Celtiis brand), and internet services to citizens, businesses, and government entities. SBIN plays a strategic role in regional connectivity by extending fibre networks across West Africa and positioning Benin as a key ECOWAS hub. Its major initiatives include the Celtiis network launch and broadband rollout to underserved areas.
About CSquared
CSquared Link Holdings (Mauritius) and CSquared Woezon, our Joint Venture in Togo in partnership with Société des Infrastructures Numériques, are pan-African technology companies, committed to a digitally connected Africa by making impactful investments into open-access broadband enabling infrastructure throughout Africa. CSquared provides wholesale broadband infrastructure and enables Hyperscalers, mobile/fixed network operators and internet service providers to deliver high-quality broadband access to businesses and consumers on the continent.
