Building Skills For Africa’s Next Subsea Cable Wave

As 2024 comes to a close, we look back on a turbulent year with four major incidents around the coast of Africa, each affecting multiple subsea cables and causing connectivity chaos on a national and regional scale. The diversity of subsea cables and long cross-border terrestrial routes saved the day, with networks and services being restored in days, while the cable repairs themselves followed in weeks or even months. However, it was a steep learning curve for some network operators, requiring a complete rewiring of certain networks in West Africa. The newest cables on the block, the Equiano and 2Africa cables, really proved their value.

I wrote an article back in 2016 entitled “Why More is Better When It Comes to Subsea Cables and Africa,” which was a light-hearted piece on why the cables we had were far from full capacity or end of life, but we needed to build more anyway. I cited six reasons for why we needed to keep building subsea cables: connecting the unconnected; greater diversity; increasing competition; new players in the market; advancements in technology; and lastly, keeping engineers in a job. “The world has to keep building new cables in order to keep grey-haired engineers employed. Actually, they should hold off retirement just yet as the subsea cable industry is enjoying a major renaissance at the moment,” I wrote.

With recent reports of my own retirement from the African Digital Infrastructure scene being somewhat exaggerated, it is time to reflect on retirement, however. Just a few days ago, our old friend, the SEA-ME-WE 3 (SMW-3) cable, retired for good and was decommissioned from service. Linking Europe to Asia but carrying African traffic by interconnecting to Africa at Djibouti and two landings in Egypt, this was the longest subsea cable in the world until the construction of the 2Africa cable. Its launch capacity of 8*STM-16 DWDM technology seemed revolutionary at the time, though fortunately, the infrastructure was able to take advantage of new technology to get a 100G upgrade in 2015, extending its working life until December 2, 2024.

But with all this retirement going on, and more cables in the pipeline, perhaps its 2019s time to think about the next generation of skills to support the continent of Africa and the subsea cable industry, which is now critical to Africa’s digital economy. Last week, I was proud to take part in an event in Nairobi, driven by an Africa-wide industry-led organization that is aiming to do just that!

The Africa Subsea+ Ecosystem Forum (ASEF) is an industry-led initiative supporting the development of the subsea ecosystem and industry in Africa. By driving innovation and collaboration, it aims to further support the global subsea cable industry, which now relies on the cables connecting to, around, and through Africa. Its workstreams consist of Policy, Technical, Industry, and Education, and the Nairobi event was a gathering of experts on the first three, with the main focus on Education for a new generation of young professionals eager to learn about the subsea cable industry and explore career opportunities. ASEF says, “By empowering individuals with the necessary skills, we aim to drive growth and innovation across the African continent.”

In fulfilling this mission, ASEF invited over 100 young Kenyans to attend the event, where they got the chance to network with and learn from highly experienced professionals in the industry, including the Chief Technical Officer and Head of Architecture of Nokia.

I was, quite frankly, blown away by the quality and depth of the speakers. This was a true masterclass on policy, network building, subsea engineering, and the life cycle of subsea cables. The opening keynote set the scene for the day, delivered by Amb. Prof. Bitange Ndemo, the “OG” of subsea cable connectivity in Kenya. When he was Principal Secretary of ICT in the 2000s, his landmark achievement was bringing industry and government together to build Kenya’s own TEAMs cable and land three cables in Kenya within two years. Further expert panels, interactive sessions, and lightning talks condensed what could have been a semester-long MSc course into one day.

My favourite was the lightning talk from Amb. Nancy Karigithu, Kenya’s Ambassador and Special Envoy on matters of the Blue Economy. From her, I learned new things about the laws of international oceans as well as the collaborations between countries and maritime authorities under the supervision of the UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO). This was truly inspiring and opened up new ideas on how African countries and industry players can work together to ensure we best protect our subsea cables and networks. To facilitate better cooperation at a global level, the ITU recently announced its International Advisory Board on Subsea Cable Resilience, and the Nairobi ASEF Forum included not one but two (Jane Munga and Nomsa Muswai) of the Advisory Board’s African members as expert speakers.

I must truly thank the ASEF team led by Nomsa, as well as the event sponsors and speakers, for bringing this event to Nairobi for the first time. I look forward to many more such events in Kenya and across the continent. I am excited about the new generation of subsea cable professionals who will take up the reins to plan, build, repair, operate, commercialize, drive policy, and most of all, take bold steps to invest in the next generation of subsea cables in Africa!

Ben Roberts is a farmer and technology enthusiast in Kenya. He is Chairman of ICT sector board at Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA)