A private sector-led investment bank and development financier, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), reported on Monday that it and other investors had closed an equity financing deal for the $240-million ‘Main-One’ submarine fibre-optics project, linking West Africa and Europe.

The ‘open-access’ project would consist of some 7000 km of cable between Portugal and Nigeria, with branching units to the Canary Islands, Morocco, Senegal, the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

The cable could deliver 1,92 Tbps of bandwidth to the broadband-poor region and was scheduled to become operational by as early as 2010.

AFC is one of the largest investors in the project, which was also reportedly being backed by a consortium of development finance institutions, led by the African Development Bank, and by a group of Nigerian banks.

A second phase of the project was also envisaged, which could extend connectivity to South Africa.

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