The Third Ministerial Steering Committee on the Amilcar Cabral Submarine Cable Project had directed ECOWAS to convene a Roundtable of the Project’s Financial Partners

The third meeting of the Ministerial Steering Committee on the Amilcar Cabral submarine cable project was held in Banjul, the Gambia, on 20 September 2023. The meeting brought together the Ministers in charge of Information Technology and Digital Economy from the six countries concerned, alongside the ECOWAS Commission, partner institutions and the private sector. It was preceded by a meeting of experts, which held on 18 and 19 September 2023.

The purpose of the meeting was to assess the project’s status of implementation and to examine options for funding. This comes after the MoU signed in Freetown, Sierra Leone in April 2023, by the six Ministers and ECOWAS, in which the parties renewed their joint political commitment to the implementation of the project.

While giving the welcome address on behalf of H.E Omar Alieu Touray, President of ECOWAS Commission, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation, Sediko Douka, thanked the Gambian authorities for their hospitality, and thanked the participants and stakeholders for being in attendance. He went on to state the three-pronged vision of the submarine cable project. “First, the aim is to significantly increase international broadband capacity in the Member States, which would propel inhabitants into a new era of digital connectivity. Secondly, in guaranteeing greater international connectivity for the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the sub region can strengthen its resilience against potential disruptions and provide its citizens with a stable digital environment. Lastly, realising the strategic importance of a direct connection between Cabo-Verde and the rest of the ECOWAS sub region, the project aims to foster closer collaboration and ties”, Commissioner Douka stated.

After the Commissioner’s address, Liberia’s ICT Minister, and representatives of the ICT Ministers of Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone as well as the representative of Cabo Verde’s Finance Minister took turns addressing the meeting. They unanimously affirmed the project’s importance in creating an enabling business environment that would help improve the living standards of citizens and create youth employment in the respective countries.

In his opening address, H.E Ousman Bah, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy of the Republic of Gambia, affirmed that it was no longer necessary to establish the importance of the regional initiative. “The submarine cable project is vital as it will help to facilitate the connection, resilience, redundancy and reliability of the Internet for our Member States” Mr Bah stated, while thanking the ECOWAS Commission and the partner institutions for their support. He equally thanked the Gambian private sector for their steady involvement in the project.

Besides the Ministers from Member States, the meeting also had in attendance the Technical Committee experts and focal points, Gambian government officials, Mr Abdou Kolley, Chief of Staff to the ECOWAS Commission President, experts from the World Bank, European Union, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Development Bank (BOAD), ECOWAS Commission, the private sector and other partner institutions.

Several decisions were reached by the end of the Ministerial Steering Committee meeting. They include an invitation to Member States to give priority to the execution of the Amilcar Cabral project considering the risk of loss of international connectivity and the significant financial implications of the imminent end-of-life of the existing ACE cable supplying the countries involved. The Member States concerned by the project are also expected to fast-track their financial contribution to the project’s execution taking due account of the conditions set forth by the financial institutions. The sectoral ministers were therefore urged to work closely with the finance ministers of their respective countries to meet the financing prerequisites of the financial partners. The Committee further called upon the Member States concerned to create a seed fund to finance the outstanding activities of the project’s preparatory phase. To that end, the Steering Committee requested that ECOWAS should define the modalities, and thereafter present a report to the Steering Committee for adoption at its next session. The beneficiary countries are to create special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to attract private investments.

The Member States concerned are expected to prioritise accelerated approvals of necessary permits (environment, landing site, right of way, easements, and so on) before the end of March 2024 and in accordance with ECOWAS Regulation C/REG.06/06/12 on conditions for access to submarine cable landing stations. The project managers are also expected to draw lessons from the experience of similar regional projects with respect to the preparatory phase, resource mobilisation, construction, and commissioning. Finally, the ECOWAS Commission has been mandated to organise a roundtable of financial partners to bridge the project’s funding gap, by 30 April 2024.

Recall that the Amilcar Cabral project aims to lay a fibre optic submarine cable that will connect Cabo Verde, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, increase the international broadband capacity in the countries concerned and guarantee redundancy for participating countries with a single connection to international submarine cables. The submarine cable is 3,130km long and costs between USD90 and 120 million.