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By Chinenye Anuforo
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Following the federal government’s plan to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cables across the country from October, anxious Nigerians have a major question. Will it move the internet experience from buffering to better and cheaper browsing or is it just another flowery promise meant to keep the citizens euphoric and perpetually expectant?
Nonetheless, the government has assured that it would lay enough fibre cables to potentially take the country’s national backbone from about 35,000 kilometres to 125,000 kilometres.
According to stakeholders, the question is not whether Nigeria needs more fibre. It does.
However, the bigger question is whether the country has sufficiently addressed the problems that have continued to frustrate fibre deployment and damage existing infrastructure, including right-of-way charges, multiple taxation, regulatory bottlenecks, vandalism, fibre cuts, poor coordination among government agencies, high energy costs, inadequate financing and weak last-mile connectivity.
For industry watchers, these are not new concerns.
In fact, they have followed the nation’s fibre ambitions for years. Now, with the government giving October as the commencement date for Project BRIDGE, ‘Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth’, industry experts argue the success of the ambitious project will ultimately depend on what happens beyond the laying of the cables.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, while announcing the implementation of the 90,000-kilometre project from October, disclosed that funding had been secured.
According to him, the project would make the country’s fibre network one of the longest in Africa when completed.
“By the time we are done, it’s going to be either the third or second longest fibre optic network on the African continent,” Tijani assured.
The Ministry described Project BRIDGE as a public-private partnership designed to deploy at least 90,000 kilometres of fibre across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, connecting more than 770 local government areas.
The World Bank, which approved $500 million in financing for the project, said the initiative would extend Nigeria’s national fibre backbone from about 35,000 kilometres to 125,000 kilometres and establish a modern national and regional fibre network.
Additional financing has also come from development partners, including a $100 million commitment from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a €22 million European Union grant.
The scale of the investment reflected the growing importance of broadband to the Nigerian economy.
Internet usage is rising rapidly, while businesses, banks, schools, hospitals, government agencies and households increasingly depend on digital services.
Mobile networks have carried much of the country’s internet growth, but as data consumption increases and services become more sophisticated, industry experts have warned that mobile infrastructure alone cannot provide the capacity, speed and reliability required for the country’s digital future.
Experts and the NCC pointed to fibre as the backbone required to support Nigeria’s growing demand for streaming, cloud computing, fintech, artificial intelligence and other data-intensive services.
Stanley Jegede of Phase3 Telecom, stressed the need for greater fibre backbone deployment. But, this is where Nigeria’s fibre dilemma begins. The country has been laying fibre for years, yet millions of Nigerians still struggle with poor connectivity. Specifically, about 27.91 million Nigerians across 97 locations remained unserved or underserved.
At the time, industry stakeholders warned that the project could be undermined by the same challenges that had slowed previous infrastructure initiatives.
Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), called for a change in the way state governments approached right-of-way charges, warning against treating them simply as revenue-generating opportunities.
Chidi Ajuzie, Group Chief Operating Officer of WTES Projects Limited, also pointed to the difficulties operators face navigating formal right-of-way processes and informal charges.
Dr Ayotunde Coker, Chief Executive Officer of Open Access Data Centre, stressed the importance of bringing private-sector expertise into the execution of the project and learning from previous failed infrastructure initiatives.
In June, the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) again identified multiple taxation, regulatory bottlenecks, high right-of-way charges, approval delays, vandalism, fibre cuts, inconsistent policies across states and local governments, limited financing and maintenance difficulties as major obstacles to fibre deployment.
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ATCON President, Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, also stressed the need for infrastructure sharing, stronger standards and sustainable investment models.
“There is perhaps the biggest threat to the new investment, damage to the infrastructure itself. Nigeria’s fibre networks have become increasingly vulnerable to road construction, excavation, vandalism and other civil works”, he said.
The NCC has repeatedly raised concern about the problem, with The Sun previously reporting the regulator’s warning of an average of about 1,100 fibre cuts weekly during an earlier period.
More recent industry concerns show that the problem has not disappeared. Telecom operators have complained that road projects and other construction activities frequently damage underground fibre, disrupting telecommunications services and affecting banking, education, healthcare, security and businesses. That creates an uncomfortable possibility.
Nigeria could spend billions of dollars laying 90,000 kilometres of new fibre only to spend more money repairing and protecting the same infrastructure.
For industry stakeholders, therefore, the success of Project BRIDGE cannot be measured simply by the number of kilometres laid. It must be measured by what Nigerians actually experience. That means asking whether a student in a rural community can attend an online class without losing connectivity. Whether a small business can process digital payments reliably.
Whether a hospital can depend on broadband for digital health services and an online worker can hold a video meeting without network interruptions. And whether consumers will eventually get faster and more affordable internet.
There is also the last-mile problem. Building a national fibre backbone does not automatically mean that fibre will enter homes, offices, schools and businesses.
The government can build the backbone, but service providers still have to connect communities and customers to it. This is why local Internet Service Providers remain important.
Emoekpere highlighted the role of local ISPs in taking connectivity deeper into communities beyond the major urban centres. The economics of rural connectivity, however, remain difficult.
An ISP may have access to a national fibre backbone but still face high costs for power, equipment, maintenance, last-mile deployment and customer acquisition.
This means that the 90,000-kilometre network must be designed not just as a fibre project but as an open-access platform that allows multiple operators to use the infrastructure efficiently and competitively.
The Federal Ministry itself said Project BRIDGE is structured as a public-private partnership, with the government playing a catalytic role while the infrastructure is operated through an independent special-purpose vehicle.
That structure could prove critical. The government has also indicated that fibre is only one part of its wider connectivity strategy.
Tijani recently said the government’s digital infrastructure strategy covers fibre, power, telecom towers, satellites and data centres, followed by digital platforms such as identity and payment systems and, ultimately, the innovators and businesses that will build services on top of the infrastructure.
The government also plans to deploy nearly 3,700 telecom towers to communities without network coverage, with Tijani putting the number of Nigerians living in communities without access to telecommunications at more than 20 million.
Satellite connectivity is expected to complement terrestrial infrastructure in locations where towers or fibre deployment may be impractical. That broader approach is important because Nigeria’s connectivity problem is not caused by a single infrastructure gap.
It is a combination of backbone capacity, last-mile access, electricity, affordability, network resilience, infrastructure protection and regulatory coordination.
And that is why Project BRIDGE represents both an opportunity and a test.
“A modern national fiber backbone could support the country’s ambitions in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital payments, e-commerce, online education, telemedicine, remote work and digital government. It could also help unlock investment and create opportunities for technology companies outside the traditional centres of Lagos and Abuja”, Emoekpere.
But the test is whether Nigeria can execute differently this time. The country has announced major connectivity projects before. “What will make Project BRIDGE different is not the size of the number, 90,000 kilometres. It is whether government agencies, state governments, road contractors, telecom operators, ISPs, infrastructure companies and investors can finally operate from the same playbook”, Hide Awe, a technology expert told Daily Sun.
For ALTON, that means resolving right-of-way and infrastructure-protection problems. For ATCON, it means tackling taxation, regulation, financing, vandalism and maintenance. For infrastructure experts, it means bringing private-sector expertise into execution. For consumers, it means one thing, a better internet experience and that should ultimately be the yardstick.
“Nigeria should not judge the success of its biggest fibre project by how many kilometres of cable have been buried underground. It should judge it by how many Nigerians can actually afford to connect, stay connected and use the internet productively”, Awe stated.
