Organisations Seek Collective Action To Address Submarine Cable Disruptions

The Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have called for collective action to address submarine cables disruptions and cuts globally.

The two organisations made the call at the opening ceremony of the maiden ITU International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Abuja.

They said that the disruptions could slow down the growth and development of digital economy in the world.

The Secretary-General of ITU, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, said that global attention should be focused on measures to sustain the spate of rapid developments in the digital economy sector.

Bogdan-Martin said that submarine cables connectivity accounted for 95 per cent of the digital economy backbone.

She said that at the moment, digital economy accounted for the greater part of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), adding that it is expected to hit 16.5 trillion dollars by 2028.

According to her, the past two decades have seen a vast digital shift, with new socio-economic opportunities as well as challenges.

“The number of internet users in 2005 during the world summit stood at one billion.

“At the end of last year, we had 5.5 billion internet users and today, the global digital economy is growing faster than global GDP and is expected to reach 16.5 trillion U.S. dollars by 2028.

“Over the next decade, it is estimated that more than two-thirds of the new value creation could come from digitally-enabled companies”.

NAN News/Jamiu Ogunshe