MTN Ghana Confirms Regional Internet Disruptions Following Subsea Cable Damage off Côte d'Ivoire

MTN Ghana has officially confirmed a significant disruption to its internet and data services, attributing the downtime to multiple undersea cable cuts off the coast of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The damage has resulted in widespread connectivity issues not only across Ghana but also within several other West African countries that rely on the same subsea infrastructure. The telecommunications giant acknowledged that the situation has severely impacted digital services, leaving many users with slow or non-existent connections during a period of increasing digital dependency. The outage has far-reaching consequences for the Ghanaian economy, particularly for sectors that operate primarily online. Financial institutions, which depend on secure and stable connections for real-time transactions, and e-commerce operators, who rely on the internet for sales and logistics, have reported significant operational challenges. Beyond corporate interests, individual consumers have also faced difficulties accessing essential communication and social platforms, highlighting the critical role that undersea cables play in the nation's daily digital life. In response to the crisis, MTN Ghana stated it is actively collaborating with international subsea cable partners to assess the full extent of the damage and expedite the repair process. While the technical teams are working to reroute traffic and restore services, the company has not yet provided a definitive timeline for when full connectivity will be re-established. The complexity of repairing deep-sea cables often means that such outages can persist for several days depending on the availability of repair vessels and the severity of the physical damage. MTN Ghana has issued a formal apology to its subscribers and business partners for the inconvenience caused by the disruption. The company pledged to provide regular updates as technical work progresses and more information becomes available. This incident underscores the ongoing vulnerability of regional digital infrastructure and the necessity for redundant systems to safeguard the West African digital economy against unforeseen physical damage to the critical subsea links that connect the continent to the global internet.