News Highlight:
- Obstacles to the proposed 90,000km fibre deployment in Nigeria identified by telecom Stakeholders.
- State Governments should address challenges like informal Right of Way demands by hoodlums for the project to succeed.
- Call for the Private Sector to execute the project, especially with the World Bank expected to fund it.
Nigeria’s telecom industry Stakeholders have expressed concerns that the Federal Government’s plan to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables across the country will encounter several obstacles, particularly from state governments, which could jeopardize the project.
They believe that without resolving the current issues of Right of Way charges, multiple taxation, and levies, which are controlled by state governments, the project set to be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), would be futile.
The stakeholders spoke on Wednesday in Lagos during the 6th edition of the Policy Implementation Assisted Forum (PIAFO), which focused on Nigeria’s renewed strategic agenda for the digital economy.
They emphasized the importance of successfully implementing the project, recently announced by the Federal Government, to enhance existing connectivity for universal internet access across Nigeria and to provide the necessary backbone infrastructure for the Nigerian digital economy.
While presenting a paper on ‘Harmonizing Nigeria’s Fibre Deployment Strategies for Effective Implementation,’ Mr. Chidi Ibisi, Executive Director of Broadbased Communications, stated that the government’s SPV initiative is a promising plan to bridge the country’s digital infrastructure gap but noted that the government must address existing challenges for it to succeed.
“The issues of high cost of Right of Way (RoW), destruction of fibre by road construction companies and vandals all need to be addressed for this new SPV initiative to be successful,” he said.
Highlighting some challenges faced by telecom operators in infrastructure deployment, Mr. Chidi Ajuzie, Group Chief Operating Officer of WTES Projects Limited, noted that the biggest obstacle to laying fibre cables in Nigeria is the informal Right of Way imposed by hoodlums in various states.
“For states, a formal right of way is set, and some states are adopting it but the informal side of the right of way is where the complexity has come today.
“If I’m trying to lay fibre in some communities here in Lagos, the first thing that happens is the so-called landowners (omo onile) come out and a different set of people will keep coming from one street to another and they charge you. How do we achieve adequate broadband infrastructure in this kind of situation?” he said.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), stated that for the 90,000-kilometre fiber project to succeed, state governments must take ownership.
“For the project to succeed, I think the governments at sub-nationals should take ownership. This issue of state governments seeing right of way as IGR should be a thing of the past. We can’t talk about the digital economy on one side and the government is seeing those who provide the services as sources of revenue.
“The government has always come up with good policies, but the implantation, particularly when they are tested far afield, is the biggest problem. Governors will go to Abuja and say, ‘In my state, I will give the right of way free of charge.’
“When you go to such a state, they may give you the right of way for zero or one Naira, but they will give you developmental levy, education levy, state impact levy, ecosystem levy. When you add all of these together, it is more than the right-of-way charges. So, who is playing who?” he said.
“For the project to succeed, I think the governments at sub-nationals should take ownership. This issue of state governments seeing right of way as IGR should be a thing of the past. We can’t talk about the digital economy on one side and the government is seeing those who provide the services as sources of revenue.”
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON)
Contributing significantly at the forum, Dr. Ayotunde Coker, Chief Executive Officer of Open Access Data Centre (OADC), emphasised that the fibre project should be executed by the private sector, especially with the World Bank expected to fund it with up to $3 billion.
According to him, “The World Bank can put money into the government, but it needs private sector partnerships as the execution engine and that’s what we’ve been pushing in Africa.
“The key thing is that when the World Bank puts the money in, it should engage the private sector, figure out the policies that it needs to do, and enable the private sector to execute them effectively and make it as open as possible. With that, they can achieve what they are trying to achieve.”
He further emphasized that for the project to succeed, Nigeria must learn from past failures to meet the new broadband penetration targets and achieve the required fibre range.
“Meaningful broadband is what we need, rather than just a huge set of megabits per second implementation. We need superhighway fibres. We need the distribution of this backbone that allows us then to fan out.”
“The key thing is that when the World Bank puts the money in, it should engage the private sector, figure out the policies that it needs to do, and enable the private sector to execute them effectively and make it as open as possible. With that, they can achieve what they are trying to achieve.”
Dr. Ayotunde Coker, Chief Executive Officer, Open Access Data Centre
He further urged state governors to be part of the project by providing an enabling environment for infrastructure roll-out, adding: “If you are a state governor and didn’t participate in it, the state won’t grow and it’s going to impact your state.”
Earlier in his opening address, Mr. Omobayo Azeez, the convener of PIAFo, stated that the conference aimed to provide a dialogue platform for digital economy stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.
He said the goal was to brainstorm, exchange perspectives, clarify uncertainties, harmonise thoughts, and foster a sense of collective responsibility toward accelerating shared prosperity through technical efficiency.
Azeez stated that the new digital economy blueprint of the federal government not only upholds existing policies and targets but also “challenges us to explore new frontiers,” which he said aligns with the summit’s theme, “Accelerating Our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency.”