Nigeria’s digital blueprint to deliver 90,000km of fiber nationwide by 2028 – Yilwatda

The National President of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, said the federal government’s ongoing digital infrastructure initiative plans to deploy and provide over 90,000 kilometers of open access fiber across the 36 states of the federation by 2028.

He said that when completed, the project is expected to take Nigeria’s combined backbone from around 35,000 kilometers to around 125,000 kilometers and connect more than 200,000 schools, health facilities and other public institutions in the country.

Yilwatda said this during a virtual executive session with CEOs from the information technology industry on Wednesday.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Information, Abimbola Tooki, he described digital infrastructure as critical to Nigeria’s economic transformation, stressing that the country’s ambitions in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital inclusion and a technology-driven economy could not be achieved without robust and affordable connectivity infrastructure.

He said the Federal Government’s BRIDGE project, designed to deploy 90,000 kilometers of open access fiber across the country, represented one of the most significant infrastructure interventions in Nigeria’s digital space.

According to him, the federal government incorporated Bridge Open Access in August as an independent company to provide the network, with the government, through Ministry of Finance Incorporated, expected to hold between 25 and 49%, while private investors will hold between 51 and 75% and retain operational control.

He said the framework was deliberately designed to ensure that the government provides the necessary risk reduction and strategic support while the private sector brings operational discipline, investment and efficiency to the project.

The APC national president revealed that around $800 million in sovereign financing had already been secured for the initiative, including $500 million from the World Bank, $100 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and $200 million from the African Development Bank, as well as a €22 million grant from the European Union.

It said physical implementation of the project is expected to begin in October 2026, with the delivery period reduced from five to three years and completion now expected in 2028.

“Once completed, the project is expected to take Nigeria’s combined backbone from approximately 35,000 kilometers to approximately 125,000 kilometers and connect more than 200,000 schools, health facilities and other public institutions,” Yilwatda said.

He, however, cautioned that the initiative’s success will depend on moving from policy announcements to actual implementation.

“The announcements do not go unnoticed,” the national president said, noting that approximately $1.2 billion from private capital is still needed to complete the project’s financing needs.

He further noted that fiber deployment alone would not automatically translate into digital inclusion without complementary investments in electricity, affordable devices, affordable data services, towers, backhaul infrastructure and last mile connectivity.

Yilwatda noted that fiber infrastructure remained heavily concentrated in major urban centres, with Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory accounting for over 18% of fiber deployed, while fiber to the home penetration remained relatively low, with approximately 265,000 subscribers nationwide.