Mauritania strengthens its connectivity with a second submarine cable thanks to the Irish EllaLink
January 15th 2024
The call for tenders for the connection of Mauritania to a second submarine fiber optic cable was launched in August 2023. The companies Sonatel, Mauritania Submarine Link Consortium and EllaLink showed interest and submitted their respective offers to the government.
EllaLink should be responsible for connecting Mauritania to its second submarine fiber optic cable. The Public Procurement Commission of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Innovation and Modernization of Administration decided to award the contract to the Irish company. The decision must still be approved by the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is partly financing the project.
The contract to connect Mauritania to a second submarine fiber optic cable includes capital expenditure (CAPEX) of 25.04 million euros and 27.37 million ouguiyas (634,271 euros). The operating expenses (OPEX) of the project amount to 14.7 million euros and 137.7 million ouguiyas (3.18 million euros) over 25 years. The execution time is 666 days from the date of notification of the contract.
It was in August 2023 that the Mauritanian government launched the call for tenders for the country’s connection to a second submarine fiber optic cable. Last November, the Public Procurement Commission confirmed having received offers from the Senegalese company Sonatel, the Mauritania Submarine Link Consortium and EllaLink. The latter’s proposal was described as “lowest price ” and “ technically compliant ”.
Unveiled in May 2022, the project to connect Mauritania to its second submarine cable is supported by the World Bank and the EIB, which are contributing €10 million and €25 million respectively. The new cable will strengthen the country’s national digital infrastructure, complementing the capabilities of the ACE cable to which the country connected in 2011. It should help provide populations and businesses with reliable and quality high-speed Internet connectivity, while accelerating the country’s digital transformation.
According to the latest statistics from the Regulatory Authority (ARE), Mauritania had 3.28 million subscribers to Internet services (fixed and mobile) in 2021 for a penetration rate of 76%. The DataReportal data platform reports 2.82 million Internet users at the start of 2023 for a penetration rate of 58.8%.
Source: Agence Ecofin Back