The first cable to connect East and West Africa in a single, continuous system, linking Africa with the Middle East, South Asia and Europe, this achievement marks a historic milestone in digital infrastructure, establishing what is currently the world’s longest open-access subsea cable system, spanning three continents over 33 countries, connecting 3 billion people.

The 2Africa system, architected and led by Meta in collaboration with partners including Bayobab (MTN Group), Orange, center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group, and WIOCC, is set to transform connectivity for 3 billion people, including Africa’s 1.4 billion people over the next decade.

With cutting-edge technology, 2Africa brings more subsea capacity than all of Africa’s subsea cables, combined, today, delivering faster, more reliable and cost-effective internet access to consumers and enterprises alike.

2Africa lays the foundation for transformative new AI experiences, economic growth, and digital inclusion across the continent – with its completion serving as a testament to what can be achieved through visionary investment and robust collaboration.

At the just-concluded launch event, Meta reaffirmed its commitment to investing in Africa’s digital future.

“The completion of 2Africa is a monumental achievement, not just for Meta, but for the entire continent. This project demonstrates what’s possible when vision, investment and collaboration come together – unlocking new opportunities for millions of Africans, empowering businesses and helping to accelerate economic growth. At Meta, we are proud to be the architects of this transformative infrastructure and remain deeply committed to investing in Africa’s digital future, in partnership with the ecosystem.” said Kojo Boakye, vice president, Public Policy, Africa, Middle East & Türkiye at Meta.

The 2Africa consortium, composed of both private and public sector leaders, exemplifies the power of collaboration in building the longest subsea cable system in the world.

With the completion of 2Africa, millions of Africans will experience improved internet speeds, greater reliability and expanded access to digital services.

Enterprises will benefit from enhanced connectivity, driving innovation, economic growth and global competitiveness.

The event brought together multiple stakeholders from across the continent, including the Minister of Post, Telecoms and Digital Economy of the DRC, Jose Mpanda Kabangu; telecommunications regulators from Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Mozambique, and Angola; as well as other senior officials including from Kenya and Nigeria.

“Completing the core 2Africa system is a milestone for open, reliable capacity spanning three continents. We built 2Africa to be open by design so more providers can connect and people and businesses can get faster, more dependable service,” said Alex-Handrah Aime, vice president, Network Investments at Meta.

“Under the surface, it’s engineered for scale, reliability and to power the next wave of cloud and AI experiences. Above the surface, it’s about everyday impact, from a student downloading a textbook in seconds to small businesses and entrepreneurs reaching new customers online. 2Africa lays the groundwork for inclusive growth today and the innovations we haven’t imagined yet.”

2Africa marks a defining moment for Africa’s digital future. By leading the design, funding and deployment of the world’s longest open‑access subsea cable to date, Meta and its partners are laying the foundation for faster, more reliable internet, new digital jobs and the next generation of online experiences.

The event concluded with an awards ceremony, where Meta recognised consortium members, including Paul Gabla (VP, Sales and Marketing, ASN), Mazen Mroué (CEO, Bayobab), Dejan Kastelic (CTO, Vodacom), Philippe Mendribil (MEA Networks Transformation and Cost Optimization, Orange), and Chris Wood (CEO, WIOCC), for their outstanding collaboration in delivering 2Africa.

The celebration also featured a symbolic 2Africa cable light-up ceremony, marking a significant milestone in the partnership.

• Bayobab, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MTN Group, has signed a five-year deal with Infobip
• The new collaboration simplifies messaging for brands with advanced technology

Infobip has entered a strategic five-year partnership with Bayobab, a leading African digital connectivity provider.

Bayobab will use Infobip’s Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) Customer Modules and Routing management to handle campaign management, APIs, and analytics and deliver SMS across Africa and beyond.

Bayobab will also access Infobip’s security solutions such as a best-in-class firewall to ensure the safety of their mobile subscribers.

With this partnership, Bayobab is streamlining its SMS connectivity and reducing associated administrative costs.

Bayobab is a leading connectivity and infrastructure provider in Africa which operates extensively across the continent, boasting over 115,000 km of fiber cable.

Bayobab provides access to and manages, directly or indirectly, 24 subsea cables, along with over 70 Points of Presence (PoPs) across Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Traditionally, brands had to connect individually with each Mobile Network Operator (MNO) within the MTN Group to terminate SMS.

With Infobip’s CPaaS enablement platform modules, Bayobab simplifies this process so that brands and aggregators can now securely connect once and terminate traffic to MTN and other operators.

This solution offers enhanced control, security, reporting, and efficiency, benefiting brands, mobile operators, and message recipients.

Kedar Gupte, chief mobility business officer at Bayobab, said:

“We wanted to simplify how brands manage messaging in Africa with a single access point, high-quality service, and necessary controls. Our partnership with Infobip equips us to do this on a large scale and is crucial for tapping into Africa’s growth potential, where consumers demand messaging solutions, chat apps, and internet access.”

Matija Ražem, chief commercial telecom officer at Infobip, added:

“Our partnership optimizes Bayobab’s SMS connectivity and routing across Africa, supporting its expansion plans. We invested heavily in our CPaaS enablement capabilities, which now serve MNOs worldwide with top-tier security and efficiency.

“Infobip has been managing global SMS traffic since 2006. We excel in the messaging ecosystem with the latest technology, secure processes, and best practices. Extending this to large entities is a logical next step. The timing is right for more mobile operator groups to adopt a hub approach and maximize their messaging opportunities.”

Infobip’s CPaaS enablement modules, now available to all MNOs, include the following:

• Best-in-class CPaaS platform: campaign and ID management, bulk messaging, usage reports
• Route management:source, destination, quality, volume, percentage, time, traffic type
• Revenue protection:grey route detection, automated penetration testing, least cost, minimum margin
• Unified reporting:management overview, partner access, flexible interface, trends analysis
• Onboarding:online visibility and onboarding for all brands, partners, and suppliers

These items are a critical component of Infobip’s significant CPaaS enablement solution.

It can integrate core telco network capabilities with RCS MaaP building blocks and Camara-compliant network APIs.

Infobip’s CPaaS enablement solution and Developer Experience network will help telecoms monetize CPaaS opportunities more efficiently.

It marks a major step for Infobip to democratize the messaging ecosystem globally, hand in hand with telcos.

The company this achievement represents a crucial step in its strategic growth plans in alignment with our Ambition 2025 targets.

Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO, said,

“The successful sale-and-leaseback transaction with Bayobab Zambia, transferring MTN Zambia’s fibre network, marks a pivotal first step in our targeted structural separation of fibre assets as outlined in Ambition 2025 strategy. This decision not only underscores our dedication to spearheading growth and fostering innovation but also plays a crucial role in driving us toward the vision of a seamlessly connected and digitally empowered Africa.”

Within Zambia, the acquisition of MTN Zambia’s extensive fibre assets will enhance Bayobab’s operational capabilities by improving traffic management on its fibre networks and making bandwidth usage more efficient.

Consolidating fibre assets under Bayobab will elevate the quality, resilience, and latency of services, delivering reliable, high-speed connectivity to customers throughout its network.

Bayobab Zambia is not only boosting essential cross-border connectivity but also establishing itself as a crucial digital nexus in the region.

With connections to seven neighbouring countries— Angola, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo—Bayobab is keen on further integration efforts to transform Zambia into a central digital hub in southern Africa. With ambitions for continued expansion across the continent, Bayobab’s network aims to enable smooth communication and collaboration across regions, thus stimulating innovation and economic progress.

Bayobab is committed to connecting Africa through next-gen digital solutions, including ongoing fibre expansion utilising licensed FiberCo’s across its footprint.

Additionally, Bayobab is progressing with other MTN operating companies to structurally separate their fibre assets in line with Ambition 2025 targets.

Frédéric Schepens, CEO of Bayobab Group, commented on this milestone, saying, “We are delighted to reach this pivotal milestone in our journey.

The successful completion of the structural separation and transfer of fibre assets not only signifies a significant leap forward for Bayobab Zambia but also heralds great benefits for Zambia and its surrounding nine countries in the region. This move reinforces our commitment to advancing connectivity across Africa and underscores our role as an open-access provider, benefiting all our partners”.

With a proprietary terrestrial fibre network spanning 114,000 kilometres and positioned to extend to 135,000 kilometres by 2025, Bayobab serves approximately 295 million African subscribers on the MTN network.

Known as ‘2Africa,’ the cable landing station is at Mopo-Onibeju Lekki area of Lagos.

2Africa is said to be the longest under-water cable in the world, passing through three continents and 33 countries, several of which are in Africa; expanding the rapidly growing African digital economy and positively impacting growth across the continent.

According to Josephine Sarouk, managing director, Bayobab Nigeria, the cable will directly support economic development in Africa, fostering further growth of 4G, 5G and increased broadband penetration to millions of people and businesses.

“Bayobab has invested in a myriad of submarine cables to boost much-needed broadband capacity to the continent; and bolster efforts to leverage technology to connect the unconnected in Africa and beyond” and

“The landing of 2Africa in Nigeria will supercharge Nigeria’s digital economy, creating space for a vibrant ecosystem bringing digital services to millions of Nigerians in line with the government’s vision for a thriving digital economy.”

“Our investment in 2Africa is part of our commitment to our customers, bringing resilience to networks and capacity due to the growing demands for digital services such as Fintech, IOT, AI, e-learning, which continue to revolutionise the way customers engage with services, fueling the demand for more data. This landing is further proof of our long-held confidence in the future of the continent,” she said.

The landing of the cable means that Nigerian service providers can access capacity in an open-access cable landing station on a fair and equitable basis. This supports healthy ecosystem development by facilitating greatly improved quality and accessibility of internet connectivity for consumers and local businesses across all sectors.

This milestone achievement by Bayobab and MTN Nigeria will spur economic growth, innovation, and development in the nation.

The 2Africa consortium includes Bayobab, Center3, China Mobile International, Meta, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group, and WIOCC.

PHOTO NEWS:

Bayobab Group, as part of the 2Africa consortium, confirmed that the cable has landed in Lagos Nigeria.

The 2Africa consortium comprised of Bayobab, center3, China Mobile International, Meta, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group, and WIOCC, is developing the world’s largest subsea cable project.

Techeconomy also gathered that Dr. Bosun Tijani, the minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, will officially announce the landing of the cable in Nigeria.

These landings are the third and fourth for Bayobab as part of a series of six landings across five countries, including three locations in West Africa, including Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire as well as South Africa.

“Following two milestone landings in South Africa, we are pleased to announce 2Africa cable landing further up the continent, in Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria,” said Frédéric Schepens, CEO of Bayobab.

“The 2Africa initiative is at the core of the work we do as Bayobab, with the ultimate goal of connecting Africa to the world and the world to Africa. We are eager to continue offering services that will expand the rapidly growing African digital economy and positively impact growth across the continent.”

Through these landings Ghanaian and Nigerian service providers have access to capacity in carrier-neutral data centres or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis.

It will also support a healthy internet ecosystem development by enhancing internet accessibility for businesses across all sectors and customers. Bayobab partnered with MTN Opco’s to complete the cable landings.

“We want to deeply support the African continent’s capacity needs and provide the required digital infrastructure that can boost the digital economy,” added Mohammed Aliyu, chief fibreco officer at Bayobab.

“These cable landings lend further credence to our East2West project, which will enable us to bridge the digital divide in West Africa and the rest of the continent by supplying dark fibre access as well as active fibre capacity across more than 10 African countries, connecting several landlocked countries to subsea cables in the process.”

Nigeria and Ghana are set to play a key role in the growth of West Africa’s digital economy. The 2Africa cable will, therefore, go a long way towards transforming the region’s connectivity landscape.

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