The popular French magazine Jeune Afrique recently published an article about “How Djibouti Telecom is bringing broadband to East Africa.”
The original article, in French, can be accessed here:
👉 Read the article on Jeune Afrique
Below, we have provided a summary of the article in English:
Strategic Location Driving Growth
Djibouti, long known for hosting military bases due to its strategic location, is now emerging as a regional digital hub. Over the past 15 years, Djibouti has positioned itself as a key landing point for submarine data cables, benefitting from its geographic advantage and political stability.
Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed highlighted at a recent forum that:
“We have become a regional hub not only for maritime transport, but also for data. Our submarine cables carry the information that fuels global trade.”
The investments into digital infrastructure are seen as turning Djibouti into a gateway to the African continent.
Boosting Connectivity Across East Africa
Djibouti Telecom is currently collaborating with partners to establish a low-latency link from Djibouti to Nairobi through Ethiopia, using high-voltage power lines.
This new terrestrial route will halve the current distance compared to using existing submarine paths, significantly boosting internet speed — a critical factor as demand for applications like gaming, virtual reality, and the metaverse continues to grow.
The collaboration between Djibouti Telecom and BCS Group dates back to 2012 and has strengthened over time, with BCS now using capacity on at least four submarine cables landing in Djibouti.
Advantages of Djibouti as a Cable Landing Hub
Landing cables in Djibouti provides several key advantages:
- Enhanced Resilience: Faster rerouting in case of cable cuts, avoiding months-long service disruptions.
- Lower Costs: Terrestrial signal amplification is cheaper than undersea.
- Increased Business Opportunities: Existing cables allow easy regional connections without building new networks.
Djibouti is currently a landing point for ten major submarine cables, serving markets across East and Southern Africa, and providing key links between Europe and Asia.
In 2023 alone, the company generated $82 million from international operations, with profits being reinvested into national connectivity improvements.
Business leaders believe Djibouti’s combination of young population, skilled diaspora, and favorable business environment positions it to become a future powerhouse for data centers and digital services.
As Prince Moukoumbouka, CEO of Cegelem, put it:
“We must make Djibouti the next Silicon Valley.”