By NEWSCOUNT Desk
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), investors, telecommunications operators and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s digital economy have called for faster deployment of fibre infrastructure, improved power supply and access to long-term financing to accelerate digital connectivity and investment in the country.
The call was contained in the communiqué issued at the end of the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Investment Forum 2026, convened by the NCC in partnership with Swedfund and Ookla at the Onomo Allure Hotel, Abuja, on September 29 and 30, 2026.
The forum, held under the theme, “Unlocking Infrastructure Investment through Data, Transparency and Partnerships,” brought together government officials, regulators, investors, development finance institutions, investment banks, institutional investors, mobile network operators, tower and fibre infrastructure companies, satellite and fixed wireless providers, original equipment manufacturers and industry associations.
The participants examined Nigeria’s digital infrastructure investment opportunities, identified barriers affecting deployment and financing, and considered practical measures for expanding meaningful connectivity.
The forum was attended by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, a representative of the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, the Ambassador of Sweden to Nigeria, heads of Federal Government agencies and other stakeholders in the digital and financial sectors.
Presentations during the forum examined the financing of digital infrastructure and the wider economic and financial conditions required to attract long-term investment into the sector.
The Chief Executive Officer of Chapel Hill Denham, Bolaji Balogun, spoke on financing digital infrastructure, stressing the importance of investable projects, appropriate financing structures, capital market participation and conditions capable of attracting long-term private and institutional capital.
The Chairman of the Board of FCMB and Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company, Bismarck Rewane, also addressed the economic and financial environment for infrastructure investment, including the cost and availability of capital, investor confidence, policy predictability and the contribution of digital infrastructure to economic growth.
Participants observed that demand for digital services is growing faster than network capacity.
They noted that Nigeria consumed about 1.6 million terabytes of data in July 2026, representing an increase of almost 47 per cent within 12 months, while subscriptions are projected to rise from about 195 million to 350 million within the next 10 to 15 years.
The forum further noted that the growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence would place additional pressure on telecommunications networks, data centres and power infrastructure.
Participants described digital connectivity as economic infrastructure, noting that telecommunications and information services accounted for 9.72 per cent of Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2026.
They also noted that mobile technology contributed about $240 billion to Africa’s economy in 2025, stressing the growing importance of digital infrastructure to trade and economic activity on the continent.
Nigeria, they observed, is positioned to play a significant role in Africa’s digital trade, having co-championed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Protocol on Digital Trade and become the first state party to ratify the protocol.
However, the forum identified actual usage of digital services as a major challenge, despite substantial progress in network coverage.
Participants noted that mobile broadband covers about 90 per cent of Nigerians, while smartphone ownership stands at about 27 per cent and broadband penetration at 57.4 per cent, below the 70 per cent target.
They said affordability of devices, digital skills and trust have become major constraints, adding that investment in network coverage alone would not close Nigeria’s digital access gap.
The forum also stressed the importance of reliable data in guiding infrastructure investment decisions.
Participants noted that the collaboration between the NCC, Swedfund and Ookla provides a detailed picture of the connectivity experienced by Nigerians, but said national-level figures do not always reveal the specific challenges affecting connectivity in individual locations.
They therefore advocated national screening, local validation and post-intervention verification as part of the process for planning and evaluating connectivity investments.
Power supply and the cost of middle-mile connectivity were also identified as major constraints to further deployment.
The forum noted that power is central to the operations of telecommunications tower companies, while the high cost of inland connectivity has restricted data centre and internet service investments largely to a few metropolitan centres.
Participants called for energy and connectivity investments to be planned together, with tower clusters considered as anchor off-takers for distributed power generation.
The forum further stressed the need for long-term financing for digital infrastructure, noting that such assets typically have a lifespan of between 20 and 30 years and should not be financed mainly through five-year bank tenors.
It noted that infrastructure financing in Nigeria had grown from less than N70 billion in 2004 to N19.4 trillion in 2025, but stressed that access to such capital depends on governance, management capacity and policy predictability.
State-level policies were also identified as important factors affecting the speed of digital infrastructure deployment.
Participants cited the pilot of the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index across 12 states, which showed that reforms in Right of Way arrangements had translated into fibre growth of between 22 and 95 per cent in states that implemented the reforms.
The forum further noted that 12 states now charge zero Right of Way fees, compared with seven in December 2024.
Participants identified emerging deployment models that could reduce the cost of reaching underserved communities, including shared rural networks, satellite services delivered to unmodified handsets, micro-cabling, solar-powered rural sites and local manufacturing of devices and SIM cards.
They, however, stressed that such innovations would not eliminate the need to make affordable devices available to users.
The forum called on the Federal Government to accelerate Project BRIDGE, the proposed 90,000-kilometre national fibre backbone, as part of efforts to address the middle-mile connectivity gap.
It also urged the government to improve the availability and reliability of power for digital infrastructure, maintain policy consistency and support financing arrangements capable of reducing the cost of capital in the sector.
The NCC was urged to sustain reforms aimed at improving investment conditions, including tariff realignment, designation of critical national information infrastructure and engagement with states on Right of Way arrangements.
The Commission was also urged to publish the first national Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index report, advance open-access and wholesale regulation, and finalise the direct-to-device framework.
State governments were called upon to reduce and harmonise Right of Way and site permit charges, adopt the Federal Government’s model under which operators that lay fibre are responsible for reinstating roads, and shorten the time required to obtain permits.
Operators, infrastructure companies and technology firms were urged to pursue shared infrastructure and neutral-host models to reduce the cost of rural and indoor coverage.
They were also advised to pair coverage investments with measures that would make affordable devices available to Nigerians, including locally manufactured devices and SIM cards.
The forum further urged investors and development finance institutions to match long-life digital infrastructure assets with long-tenor naira financing, link infrastructure funding to independently verified network performance and deploy blended financing and credit enhancement to bring commercially unready projects to the market.
Within six months, participants called for funding to be secured for community-owned rural networks powered by renewable energy in communities with zero connectivity, through partnerships involving the Universal Service Provision Fund, state governments and the Rural Electrification Agency.
Within six to 18 months, they recommended the issuance of open-access and wholesale regulations, publication of a wholesale rate card and completion of broadband mapping.
They also called for regulatory backing for the Universal Service Fund as the primary source of funding for underserved-area projects, supported by blended public and multilateral financing.
Other actions within the period include developing the business case for indoor coverage in commercial buildings and incorporating data-centre requirements into the National Broadband Plan, with off-grid and renewable power supported by blended financing.
Within 18 to 24 months, the forum recommended the establishment of a financing framework for telecommunications power, including standardised energy provision through regulation and its inclusion within critical national information infrastructure protection.
It also called for the development of metro and access fibre under concession, mapped against existing assets and integrated with Project BRIDGE.
In presenting the forum’s conclusions, the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Nnenna Ukoha, said the agreed actions were intended to strengthen collaboration among government, regulators, investors, financiers and industry in addressing the cost and tenor of financing, Right of Way restrictions, unreliable power and gaps in infrastructure data.
The forum called for sustained engagement among the stakeholders to move the agreed investment pathways and connectivity projects from recommendations to implementation.
