Telecom executives have called for coordinated investments, harmonised policies, and shared infrastructure to unlock Africa’s broadband potential and extend the continent’s vast subsea bandwidth inland to homes, schools, and businesses.

Speaking at the Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025 conference, the leaders said Africa’s challenge is no longer connectivity at its shores but the ability to move capacity across its interior efficiently.

Despite multiple undersea cable landings and over 200,000 mobile sites, fixed broadband penetration across the continent remains below six per cent, leaving millions without access to reliable high-speed internet.

Using a biological analogy, the panellists likened subsea cables to Africa’s backbone, long-haul fibre to arteries, metro networks to capillaries, and internet exchange points to veins all vital components of the continent’s “digital circulation system.”

The session, moderated by Chief Commercial Officer of IHS Nigeria, Akeem Adeshina, featured Fibresol CEO, Otuya Okecha; Equinix West Africa’s Legal Director, Abayomi Adebanjo; Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria CEO, Muhammed Rudman; Nokia’s Country Manager for Nigeria and Ghana, Marco Rebecchi; Bayobab Nigeria Managing Director, Josephine Awetefe Sarouk; and Koltronics Nigeria CEO, Lanre Kolade.

“Collaboration across all infrastructure sectors is critical to ensure Africa builds the right digital arteries, capillaries, and veins,” said Josephine Sarouk, Managing Director of Bayobab Nigeria.

Sarouk noted that while Nigeria hosts several subsea cable landings including the high-capacity 2Africa system domestic distribution still faces challenges such as high middle-mile costs, unreliable power, vandalism, and inconsistent right-of-way fees.

She explained that Bayobab is investing in national long-distance and metro fibre builds under its FibreX initiative, while partnering with regulators and utilities to stabilise energy supply and streamline permitting processes.

Koltronics CEO, Lanre Kolade, highlighted Project Bridge, the Nigerian government’s plan to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre nationwide through public-private partnerships, describing it as “a potential game-changer.”

“Project Bridge will leapfrog Nigeria’s connectivity and provide a replicable model for the continent,” he said.

Fibresol CEO, Otuya Okecha, emphasised the need for subnational participation, noting that state and local governments must collaborate with private operators to expand access.

“Community networks are the heart of our digital future. Connectivity must reach local government and ward towns, not just urban centres,” he said.

From a policy perspective, Equinix’s Abayomi Adebanjo stressed the need for data residency, stronger local peering, and regulatory harmonisation to drive efficiency and attract hyperscale investments.

“We need clearer right-of-way rules and infrastructure sharing frameworks to make interconnection more economical,” he said.

Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria CEO, Muhammed Rudman, described ISPs as the “veins” of Africa’s digital ecosystem.

“It can cost more to move traffic between Nigerian cities than to route it overseas a distortion Project Bridge aims to fix,” Rudman said.

On the technology side, Nokia’s Country Manager for Nigeria and Ghana, Marco Rebecchi, advocated a hybrid approach combining fibre-to-the-home, fixed wireless, and low Earth orbit satellite solutions to expand access and build digital sovereignty.

“Africa must manage local traffic and redundancy to ensure resilience and sovereignty in the digital era,” he said.

The session ended with a unified call for open-access models, coordinated national strategies, and deeper industry-government collaboration to ensure that the continent’s growing data capacity benefits all Africans.

Speakers agreed that subsea bandwidth is no longer Africa’s bottleneck the real test lies in delivering that capacity inland, bridging the last-mile gap between the beach and the business.

The Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025 conference was convened by Africa Hyperscalers and sponsored by Nokia, Open Access Data Centres, IHS Towers, Vertiv, Equinix, and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).