A new 640-mile fiber optic cable network in Niger, financed by the African Development Bank Group for around $50 million, was completed earlier this month.
The cable, a step toward improving the West African country’s broadband connectivity, will run along its borders with Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Nigeria.
Only about one in five Nigeriens use the internet, according to the International Telecommunication Union, lower than the continental average of around one in three.
The new cable will aid “regional digital integration,” the AfDB said, while the fiber rollout will be complemented by the planned installation of a national data center as part of the bank’s Trans-Sahara Optical Fibre Backbone Project to build out broadband infrastructure to connect Algeria, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.