By Dawud Ahmed in Lokoja.
Besides the terrible heat that envelopes Lokoja, Kogi state capital and its environs,the internet outage that hit most parts of Nigeria in recent has not spared Lokoja ,the state capital with users of telecommunication equipment finding it difficult to use such facilities to communicate with outside world .
Our correspondent in Lokoja reports on Saturday that worse hit are Cyber carfe,business centres and banks among others.
Journalists and other media who use Internet equipment to relay their stories to their various headquarters outside Lokoja also told our correspondent that it had not been easy for them transmitting their stories for editing and publishing to slow speed in transmitting such information.
Our correspondent gathered that the internet outage is caused by the damage in the undersea cable damage in outside the shores of Nigeria but with repercussion on various organizations using telecom facilities in the many States of the federation.
Some bank customers, in their separate interview with The Reporters,complained of their inability to transact business from the comfort of their homes using bank their App to effect that.
Others said they also found it difficult to buy data using their cellphone bank App while those using cellphone to make the conventional calls/and on WhatsApp or other social media platforms complained of slow speed in getting their information across to their target places or persons.
Reacting to the problem,the Nigerian Communication Commission,NCC, confirmed the problem and its implication to networks of service providers in Nigeria and other West African coast, adding that it has resulted to a combination of cable cuts.
Reuben Muoka, Director of Public Affairs at NCC, disclosed this in a statement he issued on Thursday in Abuja.
He informed telecoms consumers that the undersea cable cuts, taking its root somewhere in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal with an attendant disruption in Portugal, had resulted in equipment faults on major undersea cables along the West African coast.
According to him, the problem has also resulted in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast with negative impact on data and fixed telecoms services in several places in Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, among other West African countries.
The telecoms sector regulatory Commission also said the cable companies, including West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe, had also experienced faults while SAT3, pointing out that MainOne also had downtime.
Muoka, however ,assured that the operators of the cables were intensifying efforts to restore services to the affected countries, including Nigeria, within the shortest time possible.
He further assured telecoms consumers that operators of these undersea cables had commenced repairs, adding that services were gradually being restored.
“They have promised to work round the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.
“It is important to bring this information to the knowledge of corporate and individual consumers on these services, he said.
