Nigeria’s 90,000km ambitious fibre project is set to begin in the last quarter of 2025 after getting an at least $700 million boost from developmental partners like the World Bank, Africa Development Bank (AfDB), and Islamic Development Bank.
The project which seeks to expand the country’s fibre optic backbone from 35,000km to 125,000km and improve access to fast and reliable internet, will take between three to five years to be completed, Bosun Tijani, minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy stated on Thursday at an industry-Focused Stakeholders Engagement Session themed, ‘Fostering Connectivity in Unserved and Underserved Communities: Collaborating for Sustainable Growth.’
Nigeria needs 125,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable to achieve its national coverage goal, and the project aims to ensure that the country utilises its nine submarine cables more effectively by reaching this last-mile coverage. In 2024, the minister explained that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had set up a special-purpose vehicle to manage the initiative.
He noted that seven development finance institutions and private companies had expressed interest in co-investing. On Thursday, he revealed that the World Bank has committed $500 million, the AfDB has committed $200 million, and the Islamic Development Bank is also on board.
“The quality of connectivity that we want can only be achieved when investment is made in digital infrastructure. And historically, we’ve allowed the private sector to do this investment, which is not sufficient, because the private sector will go to where they can see immediate returns for this.
“As our economy continues to grow, we have more people want to consume telecommunication services. There is pressure on that infrastructure, which is why this government has decided to plug the gap,” he stated.
The project is structured in such a way that the federal government gets to raise up to 49 percent of the total while the private sector balances up the remaining 51 percent. Tijani noted that upon completion, the fibre backbone will be managed by the private sector.
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The project forms part of the government’s effort to close the country’s digital exclusion gap and improve broadband penetration. However, this is not the first time that the government has planned to build a fibre backbone for the country.
In November 2006, Galaxy Backbone Limited, on behalf of the government, signed a $117 million commercial contract with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd for Phase 1 of the Nigeria National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) Project. In 2011, China Eximbank agreed to provide a $100 million preferential buyer’s credit to finance 85 percent of the contract, according to AidData.
The project, completed in August 2018, covered several states, including Abuja, Benue, Ogun, and Nassarawa. In 2018, China Eximbank and the Federal Government signed a $328 million government concessional loan (GCL) for Phase 2 of the NICTIB project to cover 19 states, including Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi and Gombe. According to a Galaxy backbone official, about 5,000km of fibre cable have been laid so far.
The country is still paying back this loan, with N436.85 billion appropriated as loan repayment for the NICTIB phase II project in the Ministry of Communication’s budget for 2025.
Tijani noted that the new 90,000km project will build on the back of the NICTIB, as a study is being carried out to know how many km of fibre have been deployed.
