Road construction accounts for about 60 per cent of telecommunication network outages in Nigeria, industry experts have said, warning that repeated excavation of roads to lay fibre cables is driving service disruptions and rising deployment costs.
Stakeholders made the call on Thursday in Lagos at the 8th Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFO) National Dig-Once Policy Forum, where they urged federal and state governments to adopt a coordinated framework for fibre deployment alongside road construction.
The forum, themed “Accelerating Nigeria’s Digital Backbone: Dig-Once Policy, Project BRIDGE and Strategies for Effective Fibre Deployment,” focused on aligning infrastructure planning to improve broadband access and reduce network failures.
Dig-once policy as coordinated fibre deployment framework
The dig-once policy involves installing fibre ducts alongside roads, rail lines and other public infrastructure during construction or rehabilitation. It allows multiple operators to deploy cables through shared ducts, reducing repeated digging.
Convener of the forum, Omobayo Azeez, said the policy lowers deployment costs, reduces infrastructure damage, improves safety and shortens rollout timelines.
“At a time when Project BRIDGE is taking off, Dig-once stands out as the policy instrument that can significantly de-risk implementation and maximise long-term national value,” he said.
Project BRIDGE, a federal government initiative backed by $500 million in World Bank funding, aims to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre nationwide.
Fragmented deployment, rising damage
The stakeholders described fibre infrastructure deployment in Nigeria as fragmented, expensive, and poorly protected.
President, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, Tony Emoekpere, said the challenge is not policy design but execution.
“We have so many policies we don’t execute well. What Dig-Once offers is an opportunity to correct this,” he said, adding that operators frequently damage one another’s cables during road works, increasing repair costs and service disruptions.
Data presented by the Chief Executive Officer, Dimensions Data Limited, Gbenga Olabiyi, showed that road construction is responsible for 60 per cent of network outages. He drew attention to the gap between the infrastructure Nigeria has and what it can deliver.
“Nigeria currently has about 35,000 kilometres of fibre in the ground, yet only 16 per cent of Nigerians are connected to it. Broadband penetration stands at 45 per cent. Lagos alone has a penetration rate of over 70 per cent,” Mr Olabiyi said.
Technology to detect fibre cuts
The Director of Strategies, Huawei Technology Nigeria Limited, Eric Chen, presented a fibre sensing technology that detects and locates cable damage in real time.
Mr Chen explained that fibre cable, by its nature, can function as a sensor along every metre of its length, detecting temperature changes, vibration, and physical strain. Huawei has developed a system that combines a sensing device attached to a live fibre with an artificial intelligence unit that runs a 32-dimensional algorithm to analyse the signals collected.
He stated that the signal collection accuracy of the system reaches 99.9 per cent, and that Huawei began investing in making the technology commercially available two years ago after backbone transmission customers raised repeated complaints about the time lost searching for cut locations manually.
Defining roles under a dig-once model
Deputy Director of the Business and Initiative Unit at NatCom Development and Investment Limited, NatCom Development and Investment Limited, Segun Okuneye, said under the dig-once policy, the road contractors should install ducts during construction, while operators handle deployment on existing infrastructure.
Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, said operators should focus not just on digging once but on eliminating unnecessary digging altogether by sharing existing infrastructure and jointly replacing legacy cables that are reaching the end of their operational life.
“Early fibres laid 15 to 20 years ago are now ageing, and the industry needs a plan to replace it without everyone digging the same routes again,” he said.
On infrastructure protection, Divisional Chief Executive Officer, ipNX Nigeria, Segun Okuneye, said responsibility must fall at every level: government, operators, and local communities.
He noted that the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) is already working with the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the National Security and Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to enforce the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) order and prosecute those responsible for fibre cuts.
However, Head of Regulation and Public Relations at FibreOne Broadband Limited, Kenny Joda, said enforcement remains weak in practice. He said his company experienced four separate fibre cuts in April alone, and that switching from iron conduits to cabinet-based protection have simply shifted the vandal’s target on cabinets.
Supply without delivery
A central concern raised during the second panel session was that Nigeria has over 360 terabytes per second of broadband capacity at its subsea cable landing points, but that only about 10 per cent of that capacity reaches users.
Chief Strategy and Executive Officer of Zora Communications Limited, John Nwachukwu, explained the disconnect by comparing Nigeria’s broadband network to the human circulatory system.
“You have the heart, you have the blood, and the blood vessels. For you to take the blood down to the farthest part of the human body, you need the artery, and then the capillaries. If we don’t have that intercity metro connectivity, which is like the artery, we cannot get that capacity to the far end,” he said.
Director of Solutions Architecture at Equinix West Africa, Oluwasayo Oshadami, identified the absence of coordination in how capacity is distributed as an issue.
According to him, every state in Nigeria has at least one fibre operator, and most have more than one. However, where operators choose to build transmission capacity is driven purely by individual business decisions, with no coordination framework.
Right-of-way as a major bottleneck
Stakeholders identified right-of-way charges imposed by state governments on operators to lay cables along public roads, as one of the biggest obstacles to fibre deployment.
Using data he compiled from publicly available sources and industry knowledge, Mr Oshadami said right-of-way fees in some states account for as much as 30 per cent of total project cost before any cable is laid.
Group Chief Operating Officer of Western Telecoms and Engineering Services (WTES) Limited, Chidi Ajuzie, noted that only 12 states have reduced their right-of-way charges to zero. He said 16 states charge N145 per metre, while others charge as much as N8,000 to N10,000 per metre.
Mr Emoekpere said the disconnect stems from states treating fibre deployment as a short-term revenue source rather than long-term infrastructure.
“An internally generated revenue perspective is very short-term, and anything infrastructural is a long-term thing,” he said. He suggested that operators and government agencies must find ways to show states the concrete value that broadband deployment brings, including connecting hospitals, schools, and local governments to services that improve governance and daily life.
Group Chief Technology Officer at AlphaBeta Consulting LLP, Olumide Idowu, observed the need for concession on right-of-way pricing across all states, especially because the digital economy is a major contributor to GDP.
Regional Coordinator, South-West at Galaxy Backbone Limited, Olabisi Ibikunle, representing the company’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ibrahim Adeyanju, pointed to the company’s Tier 3 data centre in Abuja and Tier 4 data centre in Kano as part of a broader digital infrastructure that must work alongside fibre deployment to deliver sovereign, secure data hosting within Nigeria.
From policy to enforcement
On his part, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Impulso Integrated Services Limited, argued that the coordination needed to make Dig-Once policy and Project BRIDGE succeed must involve the executive branch, the National Assembly, and state governments, not just industry associations.
Mr Azeez, in his closing address, expressed hope that the forum would move the country towards aligning federal, state, and local infrastructure planning around a shared Dig-Once framework, and towards building stakeholder commitment to Project BRIDGE’s 90,000-kilometre fibre ambition.
