Submarine cable operator Main One Cable Company is seeking partnerships in francophone West African countries. Ghana Country Manager Joseph Odoi said the company had extended its operations to Togo by virtue of an interconnection through Ghana.

He also said the company had begun servicing Benin from Nigeria, and plans were underway to extend services to landlocked areas such as Burkina Faso and Senegal.

Odoi said Main One was already engaging Onatel, the national carrier of Burkina Faso, and Sonatel, the principal telecoms provider in Senegal, with a view to forging strategic alliances, the Punch reported. MainOne’s connection into Togo is via NCBC and MTN’s West African terrestial networks. Main One has also set up internet exchange points in Ghana and Nigeria to encourage local peering.

MTN Nigeria wants the government to designate ICT plant as critical national infrastructure, like that of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and others, following attacks by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. Akinwale Goodluck, MTN’s Corporate Service Executive, explained that ICT has become the backbone for many aspects of life and business and that the continued damage could have an effect on socio-economic life in Nigeria. He said that in the last few weeks, MTN and other major telecoms companies had suffered deliberate damage to infrastructure in parts of Northern Nigeria. He said that MTN had also experienced multiple cuts to its fibre cable in the same region, which has affected service in the Eastern part of the country. He said that current security concerns have prevented not only repair work to damaged equipment, but also to routine maintenance, disruption the lives of millions of people.