• Airtel Nigeria to add 2Africa cable gateway in Akwa Ibom

• Move reduces reliance on Lagos, boosting network redundancy and resilience

• Data use surged in 2025 as Airtel holds 33.94% market share

Airtel Nigeria plans to deploy a new gateway through the 2Africa submarine cable landing at Kwa Ibo in Akwa Ibom State, southern Nigeria, supplementing its longstanding access point in Lagos. The company announced the move last week.

Until now, the bulk of internet traffic has flowed through Lagos alone, concentrating failure risk and network strain on a single corridor. Adding a second international exit enables Airtel to shift toward a more decentralized architecture, aligning with practices in mature digital markets where redundancy is central to service quality.

“Over the last two years, we have invested in a disciplined and focused manner to strengthen our network nationwide. […] Those investments are now translating into measurable improvements in performance, customer experience and reach, including in underserved and hard-to-reach communities,” Balsingh said.

The infrastructure bet comes amid surging data consumption driven by streaming, cloud services, and the expansion of high-speed mobile networks. According to Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) figures, mobile data volumes consumed in Nigeria rose from 1 million terabytes in January 2025 to 1.4 million in December 2025.

By diversifying its international gateway infrastructure, the operator is addressing a component often invisible to end users but critical to connection quality: international transit architecture.

Airtel Nigeria holds a 33.94% market share with 60.9 million subscribers, according to the NCC. It trails MTN Nigeria, which commands 51.87% with 93 million subscribers. Globacom and T2 round out the market with shares of 12.39% (22.2 million) and 1.8% (3.2 million), respectively.

Adoni Conrad Quenum