CSquared, Phase3 and SBIN Commission Lagos-to-Accra Terrestrial Fibre Route, Strengthening West Africa’s Digital Resilience 

CSquared and CSquared Woezon, through a strategic partnership with Phase3 and SBIN, today announces a new terrestrial fibre route from Lagos, Nigeria to Accra, Ghana, setting a new standard for regional connectivity. 

Achieving latency of just 11ms between Lagos and Accra, this terrestrial route will ensure faster, more resilient data delivery for content, cloud, and communication services – a significant milestone in West Africa’s digital infrastructure resilience. 

This initiative responds directly to the vulnerabilities exposed in March 2024, when a rockfall off the West African coast damaged multiple subsea cables, causing widespread connectivity outages across the region, where to date no terrestrial solutions have been available to provide alternate restoration options in many parts of West Africa. 

“We’re proud to partner to extend our existing high-capacity terrestrial infrastructure beyond Ghana and Togo” said Ian Paterson, CEO of CSquared. “This project proves what’s possible when regional infrastructure providers come together to build for scale, speed, and redundancy. It’s a significant step toward a digitally connected West Africa. 

Our unique footprint in West Africa including our existing CSquared Woezon and CSquared Ghana operations are now integrated into a broader ECOWAS terrestrial solution to help drive digitalisation across the region.” 

The new route forms the cornerstone of a broader East-West terrestrial strategy, offering reliable inland capacity for those 300 million people affected by the subsea failures. This route provides a resilient, high-performance alternative to subsea-only infrastructure enabling digital access for governments, enterprises, and citizens alike. 

“This route reinforces our commitment to building a truly resilient and secure digital backbone across West Africa,” said Stanley Jegede, Executive Chairman of Phase3. “The events of March 2024 made it clear that Hyperscalers, CDNs, and operators alike require redundancy on land, not just undersea. With this new terrestrial link, Lagos’ digital ecosystem can be future-proofed, and ensure no nation east of Côte d’Ivoire is digitally isolated again.”

The successful configuration, activation and testing of this route was made possible by close collaboration with regional infrastructure partners Phase3 and SBIN, ensuring robust fibre deployment through Ghana, Togo, and Benin. 

“This collaboration between multiple partners offers strategic network resilience for the entire region,” added Craig Lowe, Chief Growth Officer at Phase3. “Subsea cables are vital, but diverse terrestrial paths are non-negotiable for today’s cloud-first, latency-sensitive ecosystem. This route will become the primary inland path from Nigeria to Accra, enabling redundant pathways for critical content delivery and cloud traffic.” 

“SBIN is committed to enabling cross-border fibre networks that support growth across West Africa,” said Ormar Gueye Ndiaye, CEO of SBIN. “Our collaboration ensures Benin plays a key role in regional fibre resilience and helps position our national infrastructure as a gateway for high-speed, reliable data transmission.” 

The partnership is a key step in achieving CSquared’s strategy of integrating the digital infrastructure of critical West African economies and leveraging its existing infrastructure, both terrestrial and through the Equiano cable system, with robust and resilient solutions. 

The Ready for Service (RFS) date and commercials will be announced in due course; however, it is a key building block in extending fibre reach across ECOWAS. 

While this route reaffirms our collective role as pan-African digital infrastructure leaders, it sets a new benchmark for terrestrial connectivity in West Africa and underlines the importance of regional partnerships in achieving new levels of resilience. 

About CSquared and CSquared Woezon 

CSquared is a pan-African technology company, committed to a digitally connected Africa by making impactful investments into open-access broadband enabling infrastructure throughout Africa. CSquared provides wholesale broadband infrastructure and enables hyperscalers, mobile/fixed network operators and internet service providers to deliver high-quality broadband access to businesses and consumers on the continent. With a mission to improve access to the Internet and drive economic growth, CSquared invests in, builds and operates reliable and resilient last mile and metropolitan fiber optic networks, national fiber backbone infrastructure and subsea solutions in Africa’s largest and most dynamic economies.

Formed in 2022, CSquared Woezon is a joint venture between CSquared and the Société des Infrastructures Numériques (SIN). This public-private partnership forms a key component of Togo’s ambitious digital agenda, aiming to enhance connectivity and drive socio-economic development. In addition to metro and backbone terrestrial solutions, CSquared Woezon is the landing partner for the Equiano cable system in Togo, the first landing of the system in continental Africa. 

About Phase3 

Phase3 is a licensed telecommunications operator with expansion into the ECOWAS region. Headquartered in Abuja, Phase3 supports financial services, cloud computing, media streaming, and mission-critical enterprise workloads, while enabling governments and institutions to access secure, high-speed digital infrastructure. 

Phase3 is committed to enhancing the availability of fast and reliable internet to the un-served and the under-served parts of the region. Voted “National Fiber Infrastructure Provider of the Year” for three consecutive years by prestigious industry analysts and watchers, Phase3’s on-going huge expansion projects are set to deliver additional fibre infrastructure in 2025 and beyond. 

About SBIN 

Société Béninoise d’Infrastructures Numériques (SBIN) is Benin’s national digital infrastructure operator, dedicated to expanding broadband access and supporting the country’s digital transformation. It manages a national fibre backbone and delivers fixed, mobile (under the Celtiis brand), and internet services to citizens, businesses, and government entities. SBIN plays a strategic role in regional connectivity by extending fibre networks across West Africa and positioning Benin as a key ECOWAS hub. Its major initiatives include the Celtiis network launch and broadband rollout to underserved areas.