By Omar Bah
Ecowas is constructing a fiber-optic submarine cable that will connect six members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Progress on the project has been made this month following important meetings in Guinea-Bissau and Guinea. The Amilcar Cabral submarine telecoms cable project, led by the Ecowas Commission, is set to deploy a subsea cable linking Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The main objective is to enhance international bandwidth capacity and provide additional redundancy for each country while supporting the existing landing stations.
Last week in Bissau, Ecowas member states convened for the fourth “Ministers of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)/Digital Economy and Finance/Planning” meeting to deliberate on implementing the cable. The gathering was graced by the presence of Jose Carlos Esteves, the Minister of Transport, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy of Guinea Bissau, ECOWAS Commissioner Sédiko Douka, experts from member states, the ECOWAS Commission, as well as technical and financial partners, including the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development and the World Bank.
The meeting resulted in significant progress, which was marked by the approval of a phased approach to the Amilcar Cabral cable. This approach entails the project commencing in countries with secured financial resources, with provisions for reimbursement by other participating nations. This marks a substantial leap forward in the project’s implementation.
The report stated that the Gambia and Guinea have secured financing for the project from the World Bank through the West Africa Regional Digital Integration Program (WARDIP). Participants have also agreed on deadlines to establish Special Purpose Companies (SPCs) in each country to carry out the project and complete detailed implementation studies led by Guinea and The Gambia. According to the report, the recent meeting followed an experts’ session held on June 12 and 13, which focused on raising funds for the project and setting up SPCs. Specific details regarding the deadlines or any other timeline information were not disclosed. However, the following ministerial review is planned for October 2024 in Liberia, indicating that the construction of the Amilcar Cabral cable is still in progress.
The Amilcar Cabral project, initially slated to connect Guinea and Cape Verde, has been developing since 2018. Last year, the project expanded as the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to join. Recently, Douka led a delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to Guinea. During this visit, they met with Guinea’s Ministers of Post, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy and Planning and International Cooperation to discuss Guinea’s readiness for the project’s implementation. The discussion topics, according to the ECOWAS Commission, included:
- Phased implementation.
- Establishing a Specific Project Company (SPC).
- Financing.
- Expedited permit procurement.
- Creating a seed fund to facilitate project preparation.
