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The latest GSMA Nigeria Digital Economy study shows that MTN Nigeria, the nation’s largest telecom provider, spent N11.1 billion over two years to repair and relocate 2,502 km of fibre-optic cables.
“The operator with 77 million subscribers could have installed an extra 870 km of new fibre if these funds had been used for rollout instead of maintenance,” the report said.
MTN paid N4.4 billion in the fiscal year 2022 to repair 1,069 kilometres of fibre, and another N6.7 billion in 2023 to fix 1,433 km.
The fibre damages were ascribed to vandalism, road construction, and construction activity.
Fibre outages still make it difficult to grow networks, and money spent on repairs may take resources away from places that need more coverage.
Fibre networks in Nigeria are therefore more costly to construct and maintain than they otherwise would be. These are high expenses. For example, in FY22 and FY23, MTN Nigeria had to move 1,069 and 1,433 kilometres of fibre cables, respectively. N4.4 billion and N6.7 billion, respectively, were the sums allotted for these initiatives, the report said.
“Vandalism and other forms of damage have been causing significant losses to the sector,” Angela Wamola, the Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, or GSMA, told reporters during a media call on Friday. The damaged areas may occasionally be easily accessible and promptly restored.
Consumer complaints regarding service availability, however, have persisted as a result of the damage. The impact of vandalism on the development of connectivity in Nigeria is one of the areas we have modelled in our report.
Due to their ability to bring network capacity closer to subscribers, fibre-optic cables are an essential component of telecom infrastructure for connectivity.
In 2023, Nigeria had installed 78,676 km of fibre-optic cable, the majority of which was located in urban areas such as Lagos (7,864.60 km), Edo (4,892.71 km), FCT (4,472.03 km), Ogun (4,189.18 km), and Niger (3,681.66 km).
According to the GSMA report, telcos have implemented several tactics to deal with the persistent issue of frequent cable outages.
Operators prepare for possible cable damage during the design and planning phases by adding more protection to the cable infrastructure and increasing maintenance budgets. These actions have led to a notable increase in the overall cost of telecom infrastructure in Nigeria.
The “Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure Order, 2024” was published legally in the federal gazette last August.
Wilfully damaging vital telecom infrastructure, such as telco towers, fibre optic cables, and data centres, is illegal, according to the gazette, according to Minister of Communication and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani.
If the bill is approved, telecom infrastructure would be legally protected, preventing damage and lessening the financial burden on operators. Nonetheless, the bill is still being reviewed.
Industry participants caution that further postponements in governmental interventions may hinder Nigeria’s broadband expansion due to the growing expenses of fibre network maintenance, which would impact consumers and businesses that depend on dependable connectivity.
