By Adeyinka Adeniran
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), alongside key international development partners, financial leaders, and telecommunications operators, has identified severe power supply deficits and middle-mile infrastructure gaps as the primary bottlenecks stifling digital expansion and investor confidence across Nigeria.
This consensus formed the core of a communique signed by the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Nnenna Ukoha, following the conclusion of the two-day Nigeria Digital Connectivity Investment Forum 2026, jointly convened with Swedfund and Ookla in Abuja under the theme “Unlocking Infrastructure Investment through Data, Transparency and Partnerships.”
Stakeholders at the forum warned that national network demand is rapidly outstripping existing infrastructure capacity, fueled by a massive surge in data consumption and emerging digital technologies.
“Nigeria consumed about 1.6 million terabytes of data in July 2026, an increase of almost 47 percent in twelve months, and subscriptions are projected to grow from about 195 million towards 350 million within ten to fifteen years,” the communique revealed. “Cloud computing and artificial intelligence will place further demand on networks, data centres and, above all, power.”
Despite high population coverage, experts emphasized that the country faces a stark adoption gap driven by device costs and middle-mile constraints.
“Mobile broadband covers about 90 percent of Nigerians, yet smartphone ownership stands at about 27 percent and broadband penetration at 57.4 percent against a 70 percent target,” the communique noted. “Device affordability, digital skills and trust are the binding constraints, and coverage investment alone cannot close them.”
Highlighting the physical infrastructure barriers, participants pointed out that energy scarcity remains the single greatest impediment to expanding data infrastructure beyond a few metropolitan centers.
“Power and the middle mile are the binding constraints on deployment,” the document stated. “For tower companies, power is not a side business but the business, and the cost of inland connectivity confines datacentre and internet service investment to a few metropolitan centres. Energy and connectivity investment should be planned together, with tower clusters recognised as anchor off-takers for distributed generation.”
Delivering an investor’s perspective on telecom financing on Day 1 of the forum, the Chief Executive Officer of Chapel Hill Denham, Mr. Bolaji Balogun, emphasized the urgent need to realign capital market structures with the lifespan of digital assets.
“Digital infrastructure has an asset life of twenty to thirty years and cannot be financed on five-year bank tenors,” Balogun stressed, noting that accessing long-term domestic funds hinges on governance, structural predictability, and bankable project design.
Aligning with this perspective on Day 2, the Chairman of the Board of FCMB and Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, highlighted the broader macroeconomic realities shaping infrastructure growth.
Rewane underscored “the importance of cost and availability of capital, investor confidence, policy predictability and the role of digital infrastructure in supporting productivity and economic growth,” cautioning that unpredictable operating conditions directly inflate the cost of capital.
To address these systemic hurdles, the forum recommended that the Federal Government urgently “accelerate the delivery of Project BRIDGE, the 90,000 km national fibre backbone, as a strategic response to the middle-mile connectivity gap,” alongside targeted policy measures to guarantee reliable energy for telecommunication installations.
The communique also called on State Governments to streamline regulatory approvals and reduce administrative fees, citing evidence from the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index.
“Right of Way reform translates directly into fibre growth of between 22 percent and 95 percent in reforming States, with twelve States now charging zero, up from seven in December 2024,” the communique reported, urging remaining sub-national governments to adopt similar zero-charge regimes and uniform road reinstatement models.
Setting out a clear implementation timeline, the forum resolved that within six months, stakeholders must “secure funding for community co-owned rural networks powered by renewable energy in zero-connectivity communities,” while the NCC committed to issuing open-access wholesale regulations, completing national broadband mapping, and establishing a protective financing framework for telecommunications power within six to twenty-four months.
