In March 2024, people in Nigeria experienced a major disruption. One morning, banking apps wouldn’t open, emails would not deliver, and many lost internet access completely.
The problem was a severe “multiple cable cut” off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire. It damaged the MainOne, WACS, ACE, and SAT-3 cables at the same time. This outage cost the Nigerian economy about $593 million in just four days. It highlighted a serious risk: we have a Single Point of Failure.
Today, December 23, 2025, Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of NITDA, told Bloomberg that Nigeria is in “advanced talks” with Google to build a new undersea cable.
But there is an important detail often overlooked: this project is not just about faster internet; it aims to create more options. Currently, most major cables entering Nigeria, such as MainOne, Glo-1, WACS, and ACE, follow the same route. They travel north along the West African coast to Europe. If an underwater landslide or a ship’s anchor damages part of this corridor, we could lose internet access again.
The goal of the new Google cable is to establish a different route. This will provide a backup option and protect Nigeria from another total blackout.
Why Google?
You might wonder, “Why is Google involved? Why not a telecom company like MTN or Airtel?” The answer is that Google is pursuing a different strategy.
Google is currently building Umoja, the first fibre-optic route connecting Africa directly to Australia via the Indian Ocean, rather than just to Europe.
This strategy builds on Equiano, which already reaches Lagos and runs up the West Coast. By adding this new cable, which may link to the Umoja system or a new hub, Google is connecting Nigeria to both the West (Europe) and the East (Asia/Australia).
Additionally, this aligns with Google’s recent plan to build four new infrastructure hubs in Africa: North, South, East, and West. Nigeria aims to become the central hub for the West.
Why We Can’t Afford to Blink
We need to talk about money. The internet is now a key part of our economy, not just social media. As of Q2 2025, the digital economy accounted for about 14.4% of Nigeria’s real GDP, or about ₦7.37 trillion for that quarter.
This is important because if the internet connections are disrupted for weeks, it can hurt a sector that contributes nearly 15% to our economy. The government understands that keeping the internet running is as important as national security.
What This Means for You
Let’s simplify this. What does it mean for people in Lagos, Abuja, or Kano?
- The End of “Network Anxiety”: Have you ever felt nervous when trying to make a transfer, hoping it goes through? With new redundancy, if one cable is damaged, the traffic will automatically switch to a backup cable. You won’t even know there was an issue.
- Cheaper Data (Eventually): It’s basic economics. Google makes money when you use their services like Search, YouTube, and Gmail. They want to make internet access cheaper and easier so that you stay online longer. More internet capacity in Lagos will help lower data prices.
- The Tech Hub Goal: Nigeria aims to be the “Silicon Valley of Africa.” But you can’t be a tech hub if your developers can’t access important sites because of problems far away. This new infrastructure will support the next generation of Nigerian startups.
Summary: The Big Picture
Nigeria wants to stop relying on a single path for its internet services. By partnering with Google, the Federal Government is effectively buying an insurance policy for the digital economy.
- Then (2024): One route, one accident, total blackout.
- Now (2025/2026): Multiple routes, diverse partners (Google), and a resilient backbone.
This is the kind of infrastructure that doesn’t get the spotlight like a new bridge, but for a country of 200 million people using the internet, it is arguably much more important.
