<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/18/facebook-meta-mainone-fibre-optics-internet-access-nigeria-edo>
When government officials in the southern Nigerian state of Edo set about
radically improving poor internet access for its population of 4 million, they
didn’t have to look far for help. MainOne, a company responsible for laying a
vast network of fibre-optic cables across west Africa, was an obvious partner.
Another, perhaps less obvious one, was Facebook.
A joint agreement was signed to install fibre-optic cables running across the
state’s capital, Benin City. Since 2019, 400km (250 miles) of cables have been
laid in Edo, about a quarter via the partnership between the two companies and
the government.
“Obviously, Facebook isn’t really a digital infrastructure company, but they
invested in these cables,” said Emmanuel Eweka, who worked as a senior
government official for the Edo government until last September.
In recent years, as Facebook has come under rising legislative pressure in the
west, the company has increased its focus on Africa, particularly in countries
where the regulatory and legislative environment tends to be much looser.
The combination of weak and expensive internet coverage for most of Nigeria’s
fast-growing population of more than 200 million people has meant that
companies hoping to tap into a potential goldmine of new users – and their data
– have sought to invest in the business of helping those potential users get
online in the first place.
“To make internet data more affordable, Facebook needs to build infrastructures
that are almost free,” Eweka said. “In fact, I’d say Facebook actually loses in
terms of making money out of those cables. But then they gain it back on the
user data that they will generate, and obviously that has huge potential in a
country like Nigeria.”
New potential users are rapidly emerging in countries with fast-growing
populations and rising smartphone use driven by increased connectivity. Just
over half of Nigeria’s population currently has access to the internet, and the
proportion with access is rising each year.
In places like Edo, where government officials are committed to overhauling
sparse and expensive internet access, there are ripe opportunities for Meta,
Facebook’s parent company, to become increasingly central to digital
infrastructure, thereby positioning itself to capitalise on the increased
connectivity that will follow.
Edo’s governor, Godwin Obaseki, has in recent years driven a digitisation
agenda that touches on many areas of ordinary life, and tech companies have
become fundamental parts of it.
In 2019, Facebook invested $20m in internet infrastructure in Edo, and
committed alongside MainOne to laying 750km of fibre-optic cables in Edo and
the south-western state of Ogun. Both states have committed to building
business and technology hubs, expanding internet access for entrepreneurs, tech
workers, government agencies and schools.
Faster internet supplied through the cables has underpinned a drive to change
the way the government in Edo works.
The state’s previously “analogue” civil service now uses a Microsoft-based
government portal, according to Eweka, using fibre-optic internet access
provided by MainOne and Facebook. “The level of accountability this system
brings is so effective,” Eweka said. “Right now, if a case file is sent to a
civil servant from the governor’s office, the governor can see exactly when it
is opened, and whether it has been actualised. So the days where you send one
file somewhere and it gets lost in the system are gone.”
Schools in Edo and areas where fibre-optic cables can be accessed have
benefited from subsidised internet connectivity and are also working with
Microsoft-based learning programs, improving the quality of education,
officials say.
Last November, the government launched the Edo Tech Park, a largely
as-yet-unbuilt project on 200,000sq km of land that developers envision will be
the centre of the state’s growing tech ecosystem.
The hub will provide “live-in, work apartments, residential and commercial real
estate, tech incubators, and offices for rent”. Fundamental to the plans are
the increased access to faster and cheaper internet services that Meta has
helped provide.
Stephen Osawaru, a 38-year-old entrepreneur and business consultant in Benin
City, works with a network of more than 300 startups in the state. “Many
internet businesses in education, agriculture, health and finance didn’t exist
five years ago that have now taken advantage of the connectivity in Edo,” he
said. “The internet is better and cheaper than it was five years ago; internet
penetration is growing at an exponential rate and creating more opportunities,”
he said. Both of his businesses have thrived as a result of engagement through
Facebook and Instagram and through WhatsApp broadcasts to customers.
Funke Opeke founded MainOne in 2008. Since then, a single deep-sea cable
running south along the edge of the Atlantic, from Portugal to west Africa and
on to South Africa, has expanded, spawning a vast maze of fibre-optic
connections. She describes the public-private partnerships in Edo as “a model”
for how internet access in Nigeria can be rapidly increased.
Opeke said cables are leased by other telecommunication companies and that this
lowered costs for mobile operators because operators do not have to build their
own infrastructure.
“We also build to all the critical points of importance for governments so that
we’re able to deliver services to them and help their automation. It’s
accelerating development and state services to the people – a win-win for the
government and the private sector.”
Others are more circumspect, acknowledging the potential benefits to the
country alongside the motives of the companies involved. When partnership
announcements are made, the tone has sounded “quite altruistic, like they [the
technology companies] are doing this to help,” said Gbemisola Alonge, a senior
development analyst at Stears, an economic analysis company in Lagos. “But it’s
never like that. It’s to expand their reach and increase their [user] base.”
A Meta spokesperson said the company worked with partners “to drive innovation
on all aspects of performance and efficiency” and that its partnership with
MainOne had helped bring online training to 2,000 teachers in Edo and
connectivity to four schools and their surrounding communities.
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