WATRA Raises Concerns Over West Africa’s Digital Economy
Emma Okonji
The West African Telecommunications Regulatory Assembly (WATRA) has issued a stark warning regarding the vulnerabilities facing West Africa’s digital economy, which contributes between $100 billion and $150 billion annually. Despite its significant growth potential, the region’s digital transformation is jeopardized by frail foundational infrastructure.
Speaking at the 2026 International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Porto, Portugal, WATRA Executive Director Aliyu Aboki highlighted that the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), estimated at over $800 billion, is increasingly at risk due to inadequate infrastructure. This deficiency hampers the progress necessary for economic transformation and expansion.
Aboki pointed out that digital solutions are currently bridging long-standing infrastructure gaps, enhancing productivity, attracting foreign investments, and generating employment opportunities throughout the region. However, this progress is built on a precarious base, as evidenced by a series of disruptions to undersea cables along West Africa’s coast, which reveal profound weaknesses in the region’s digital economy.
He emphasized the unique nature of these disruptions in West Africa, referencing a significant incident in 2024 where multiple undersea cables were compromised simultaneously. This scenario drastically reduced bandwidth availability, frustrating even existing redundancies and magnifying the region’s vulnerabilities.
The Imperative of Resilient Connectivity
During the Summit, Aboki stressed the crucial importance of resilient connectivity for sustaining growth momentum in West Africa. He argued that resilience has historically been an afterthought, tackled post-deployment instead of being integrated at the investment stage. “This outdated approach is no longer viable,” he insisted. Growing global discourse, including insights from the World Bank, emphasizes the need to regard digital infrastructure through the lens of long-term risk and sustainability. Properly defined resilience can influence risk premiums, insurance costs, and funding decisions, turning what was once perceived as an additional burden into a compelling value proposition, especially for underdeveloped regions.
Aboki further articulated that the challenge extends beyond merely installing additional cables; the focus must shift toward creating a financeable and durable system that upholds consistency across the region. He highlighted that the 2024 disruption exposes critical structural inconsistencies within the current framework of submarine cable networks, which are regionally operated but primarily governed on a national level. This duality generates complications, with variations in permitting processes and emergency response protocols. Such discrepancies can prolong repair timelines, especially when compounded by factors like power outages affecting customs clearance and inter-agency coordination.
Advocating for a Coordinated Policy Framework
In addressing these challenges, Aboki advocated for a fundamental change in perspective regarding submarine cable resilience. He proposed that it should be recognized as a regional public good necessitating a cohesive policy framework. “In West Africa, the importance of regulatory coordination through WATRA is paramount,” he stated, emphasizing the assembly’s role in uniting telecommunications regulators from 16 member countries. The objective is one of coordination rather than centralization, thereby ensuring that key aspects of resilience are uniformly addressed across jurisdictions.
To strengthen this framework, Aboki called for regulatory initiatives that include streamlining the landing and permitting processes, enhancing cable protection measures in alignment with international best practices, establishing pre-agreed emergency protocols for repair efforts, and improving data sharing related to outages and recovery timelines. Such actions are crucial for building a robust digital infrastructure that can withstand future disruptions, thereby securing West Africa’s economic potential.
