Federal Government of Nigeria will commence the implementation of its 90,000-kilometre nationwide fibre-optic network in October.
This was made known by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, on Thursday in Abuja at the National Innovation Hub Standards Framework Workshop, organised to validate proposed standards, assessment criteria and implementation approaches for innovation hubs across the country.
He said funding had been secured for the project, which is expected to significantly expand Nigeria’s broadband backbone and improve connectivity in underserved communities.
“President Bola Tinubu approved that we must deepen connectivity and we’re investing in 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic network,” Tijani said.
He explained that when completed, the project would make Nigeria’s fibre network one of the longest in Africa, ranking between those of South Africa and Egypt.
The project, known as Project BRIDGE — Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth — is designed to deploy at least 90,000km of additional fibre through a public-private partnership, increasing the country’s fibre backbone from about 35,000km to approximately 125,000km.
The minister said funding had been secured from development partners, including the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Union and African Development Bank.
Tijani added that the Federal Government would also deploy about 3,700 telecom towers in communities without network coverage.
“There are over 20 million of those people in this country today living in communities where there’s no access to telecommunications at all,” he said.
He said the government would also renew Nigeria’s communications satellite to extend connectivity to areas where terrestrial infrastructure and telecom towers could not easily reach.
According to him, the fibre expansion forms part of the Federal Government’s broader strategy to develop the infrastructure required to drive Nigeria’s digital economy.
Tijani said the strategy would operate across three layers: foundational infrastructure such as fibre, power, telecom towers, satellites and data centres; digital platforms including identity and payment systems; and innovators and businesses that would develop services on the infrastructure.
The minister linked the investments to the Federal Government’s ambition of building a $1tn economy, stressing that Nigeria could not achieve such growth by relying solely on oil and gas.
He said creating more technology companies like Andela, Paystack and Flutterwave would help expand employment opportunities, government revenue and economic productivity.
Earlier, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Abdullahi, said the proposed National Innovation Hub Standards Framework would help address disparities in the quality and distribution of innovation hubs across Nigeria.
Abdullahi said research had identified more than 339 innovation hubs nationwide, but noted that many were concentrated in Lagos, Abuja and a few other states.
He said the framework would establish national standards through seven dimensions and about 35 assessment criteria, enabling innovation hubs to identify their strengths and improve their capacity to incubate startups.
Abdullahi also disclosed that NITDA was collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Education to integrate digital skills into formal education.
The Acting Head of Partnerships at the Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Prof Leila Ben-Amor, said common standards were necessary to sustain the expansion of Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem.
Ben-Amor said Team Europe and key member states were supporting Nigeria’s digital ecosystem with more than €820m between 2021 and 2027 through initiatives including the EU-Nigeria Digital Package and the Global Gateway Strategy.
She said, “Scale without a common standard is fragile,” adding that the proposed framework could become part of Nigeria’s wider digital architecture.
Representing Denmark’s Consul General to Nigeria, Senior Programme Manager at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria, Nosakhare Ayejimiwo, said a national benchmark would improve the quality and capacity of innovation hubs.
She stressed the need for continued collaboration among government, the private sector, development partners, entrepreneurs and hub operators for effective implementation.
