Banks in Nigeria have been impacted by the damage to submarine cables, resulting in internet outages across parts of Africa.
The submarine cable cuts, occurring on Thursday, have affected subsea cable providers and disrupted internet traffic in significant regions of the continent.
Reports indicate that the damage has affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, impacting submarine communications cables such as the West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3.
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This issue has caused downtime in various countries across West and South Africa, affecting both telecommunications networks and banks in Nigeria. Sterling Bank, in a notice to customers on Thursday, issued an apology for the 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.
“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,” Sterling Bank stated.
Rasheed Bolarinwa, President, of the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB), confirmed that 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 told TheCable.
He however said that substantial progress is being recorded in a gradual resolution of the glitch.