Nigeria’s telcos hit by 19,000 fibre cuts in eight months

Nigeria’s telecommunications operators have suffered over 19,000 fibre cuts between January and August 2025, based on the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC). The incidents, coupled with widespread gear theft and website vandalism, have brought about extended community outages, service disruptions, and important income losses throughout the sector.

Talking at a enterprise roundtable on broadband funding and infrastructure safety in Abuja on Wednesday, the NCC Government Vice Chairman, Aminu Maida, described the pattern as a serious menace to Nigeria’s digital economic system ambitions. He mentioned the dimensions of vandalism—19,384 fibre cuts, 3,241 circumstances of apparatus theft, and over 19,000 denials of entry to telecom websites—underscored the urgency of defending vital nationwide data infrastructure.

“Connectivity is the quiet enabler of productiveness, commerce, and even safety. When it fails, alternatives evaporate, and in vital conditions, lives may be put in danger,” Maida mentioned.

The NCC chief famous that broadband connectivity has change into as very important to nationwide growth as electrical energy or transportation infrastructure. With broadband penetration at 48.81% and over 140 million Nigerians on-line, the telecom sector stays a key driver of GDP progress. A World Financial institution research exhibits that each 10% improve in broadband penetration can enhance GDP by as much as 1.38%, making digital infrastructure safety a matter of financial survival.

Underneath the Nationwide Broadband Plan (2020–2025), Nigeria goals to attain 70% broadband penetration and deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic spine by the tip of 2025. The NCC, working with the Workplace of the Nationwide Safety Adviser (ONSA) and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economic system, has been implementing measures to guard telecom belongings following the signing of the Crucial Nationwide Data Infrastructure (CNII) Order by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2024.

The CNII Order empowers regulation enforcement businesses to behave decisively towards vandalism and community sabotage. It additionally mandates stricter safety requirements for telecom websites. Maida famous that the NCC and ONSA have dismantled main cartels concerned in gear theft and are strengthening collaboration with state governments, safety businesses, and the judiciary to hurry up prosecution and deterrence.

Nonetheless, different bottlenecks—comparable to excessive Proper of Method (RoW) charges, vitality prices, and a number of taxation—proceed to gradual broadband rollout. Though eleven states, together with Adamawa, Bauchi, Enugu, Benue, and Zamfara, have fully waived RoW charges, the NCC urged different states to comply with go well with to allow quicker fibre deployment.

“Each governor holds a strategic lever,” Maida mentioned. “Waiving Proper of Method prices and defending telecom infrastructure can decide whether or not a state prospers or stagnates within the digital period.”

The Fee additionally introduced plans to launch two strategic instruments: the Ease of Doing Enterprise Portal and the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index (NDCI), to enhance state-level transparency and measure digital readiness throughout Nigeria.

Maida known as on states, operators, and the personal sector to align efforts towards defending infrastructure and increasing entry. “Pipelines of oil are giving option to pipelines of fibre,” he mentioned. “The digital revolution won’t wait—Nigeria should align, make investments, and shield its networks or threat being left behind.”

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