Africa50 and Bayobab in partnership to develop pan-African terrestrial fibre

Bayobab and Africa50 has signed a partnership to develop Project East2West, a terrestrial fibre optic cable network connecting the eastern shores of Africa to those on the continent’s west.

The partnership signing which happened on Monday, May 15, 2023 will invest up to US$320 million connecting ten African countries over the years 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Bayobab is wholly owned by MTN Group. This investment is within MTN’s previously announced Ambition 2025 plans and will contribute to Bayobab reaching the Group’s target of having 135,000km of proprietary fibre over the coming three years.

“This partnership with Africa50 comes at an opportune time, just as we rebrand MTN GlobalConnect to Bayobab to position the business as a Africa-focused open-access digital infrastructure platform,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita.

“The alliance is more than cables and connections; it is about building bridges of connectivity that span nations and bring people closer together.” “For landlocked African countries, Project East2West will improve latency by almost two-thirds and increase capacity to support high-quality broadband access. In this way, it will level the playing field and ensure that everyone has a fair chance to succeed in the digital world,” he added.

The partnership will offer substantial improvements in data traffic for internet service providers, mobile network operators and hyperscalers operating in these countries. It will also bridge the bottlenecks in global internet traffic landing in and going out of Africa. It is expected to cut latency by up to 65% on the east-to-west route.

Bayobab CEO Frédéric Schepens said: “Guided by the belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life, we see the provision of digital infrastructure as critical in driving digital transformation, weaving African countries together and connecting them to the rest of the world.” He added: “Africa’s connectivity relies on strategic and global partnerships coming together to build the much-needed large-scale backbone infrastructure to meet the explosive demand for digital services. We are looking forward to Project East2West meeting the connectivity demands to power digital services, bridging the digital divide across Africa, and paving the way for the sustainable digital societies of tomorrow”.

As a co-developer, Africa50 is fostering the harmonization of regional data and security regulations, boosting consumption of local content throughout the region and promoting inter-regional exchanges and regional economic development.

“Project East2West is a remarkable and transformative project that will revolutionize Africa’s internet capacity expansion by fast-tracking the growth and development of 4G and 5G”, said Alain Ebobissé, CEO, Africa50. “It will have a significant impact on Africa’s quest to make the internet accessible to its growing population. Partnering with a large Pan-African company like Project Drone and MTN is significant in rolling out such an impactful cross-border project. This partnership aligns with Africa50s’ mission to scale up and accelerate the delivery of infrastructure to stimulate sustainable and inclusive growth on the continent”, Mr. Ebobissé added.

The development of Project East2West is expected to be completed in 2025.