NCC Canvasses Accelerated Fibre Rollout For Nigeria’s $1Trn Economy Drive
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called for acceleration in Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployment in view of the key roles of rapid broadband expansion in current drive by the Federal Government to achieve the $1 trillion economy target for the country by 2030.
The Commission’s Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, made the call on Tuesday during the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria’s (ATCON’s) Critical Conversation Forum on FTTH held in Lagos.
Maida, who spoke on the theme “Addressing Challenges, Strengthening Standards and Ensuring Sustainable FTTH Deployment in Nigeria”, maintained that resilient fibre infrastructure had transitioned from being a luxury to a critical driver of national development.
He explained that while mobile internet access in the country has grown, consolidating on the achievements requires huge investments in fixed broadband infrastructure, which currently remains inadequate in the country
Latest data reflected that Nigeria recorded a milestone 154.72 million internet subscriptions in April 2026, deepening broadband penetration to 55.67% (up from 48.81% the previous year) based on surge in remote work, online learning, cloud computing, and AI-driven applications, Nigerians now consume about 1.4 million terabytes of internet data monthly.
Despite the improved indices, Maida revealed that out of millions of internet users in the country, only about 265,000 were active FTTH subscriptions, thereby creating opportunity for investors and economic expansion.
The EVC stated that internet connectivity has become essential for education, healthcare, commerce, governance, financial services, and innovation, noting that telecom investors to deepen fibre rollout continued to face sundry challenges with the attendant negative implications for quality service delivery
He acknowledged some of the bottlenecks as damages to fibre optics, which in 2025 alone, telecom operators recorded over 27,685 fibre cuts, 4,210 incidents of theft, and 27,000 instances of denied access to infrastructure sites; multiple permitting processes, weak inter-agency coordination, and inconsistent Right-of-Way (RoW) fees across states continue to stifle progress.
Maida also disclosed that while 13 states had waived RoW charges and 16 had adopted the National Economic Council’s recommended rate of N145 per linear metre, others were still to take such policy measures, urging the remaining sub-national governments to remove these barriers since the long-term economic gains of robust digital infrastructure outweigh immediate RoW revenues.
The EVC emphasized that said to address the challenges the NCC had embarked on sundry strategic initiatives, including the launch of an Ease of Doing Business Portal designed to simplify investments by offering centralized, state-specific data on regulatory approvals and deployment laws; ongoing review of the wholesale broadband market to encourage healthy competition, protect consumer choice, and enforce affordable pricing; and a call to action for urban planners to integrate telecommunications infrastructure directly into community planning alongside traditional utilities like roads, water, and electricity.
Maida also spoke on the Federal Government’s Project BRIDGE, which aims at deploying approximately 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable across all 774 local government areas.
He stressed however, that to achieve the goal of the project there must be aggressive last-mile FTTH connections to link individual homes, hospitals, and schools.
In his address at the forum, the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Mr. Tony Emoekpere, called on mobile network operators (MNOs) to look inward on how best to eliminate poor installation practices and costly infrastructure duplication by sharing their active infrastructure and standardizing deployment rules in the industry.
Emoekpere, expressed optimism that decisions taken at the forum would help in identifying practical solutions required to boost last-mile internet connectivity nationwide.