The Nigerian government has revised the planned delivery period for its $2 billion national fibre infrastructure project from five years to three. The project, known as Project BRIDGE, aims to expand the country's fibre backbone from 30,000-35,000km to 120,000-125,000km, connecting 40 million people without internet access. This ambitious expansion is one of the largest on the continent.
The project has received significant funding commitments, including $500 million from the World Bank and $200 million from the African Development Bank, approved in April 2026. The project is being structured around a special purpose vehicle to attract private capital alongside development-finance funding. The fibre network is expected to provide wholesale, open-access infrastructure for telecom operators, internet service providers, and digital businesses.
The Nigerian government is focusing on "meaningful connectivity," which refers to reliable, high-speed access that enables people and businesses to use digital services productively. Currently, Nigeria's connectivity problem is not just about mobile signal coverage but also about the quality of the connection. The government aims to address this issue with the fibre expansion and a separate programme to deploy 3,700 telecommunications towers within two years.
The World Bank says the project will deploy over 90,000km of fibre, connecting critical public infrastructure, including 38,800 public schools, 16,900 health facilities, and 3,400 local government offices. The expanded backbone is expected to reach about 120,000km and connect local governments, schools, health facilities, agro-industrial zones, and rural communities. This will create the middle-mile backbone needed for operators and service providers to take connectivity deeper into communities.
The challenge lies in turning infrastructure deployment into actual usage, as Nigeria has a large population with access to some form of network coverage but a substantial share of those who live within coverage areas do not use mobile internet. The government is working to address the usage gap, which is attributed to affordability, device costs, digital skills, service quality, or other barriers.
The fibre expansion is also linked to Nigeria's ambition to develop an artificial intelligence economy, part of its broader strategy to build a $1 trillion economy by 2030. However, the minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, emphasized that infrastructure alone is not enough, and countries must first digitize their economies and build the human capacity required to participate in the AI economy.
The decision to compress the fibre project timeline raises the importance of execution, with challenges anticipated around rights-of-way, economic disruption, and ensuring the new backbone is commercially usable, resilient, and connected to last-mile networks. The project's success will ultimately depend on what happens beyond the fibre itself, including whether operators extend last-mile networks and whether households and businesses can afford access.
Key points
- Nigeria aims to connect 40 million people without internet access through the $2 billion national fibre network project.
- The project has received significant funding commitments from the World Bank and African Development Bank.
- The fibre expansion is linked to Nigeria's ambition to develop an artificial intelligence economy and build a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
