Nigeria recorded 5,934 fibre optic cable cuts in the first half of 2026, an average of about 33 incidents every day, raising concerns over the growing damage to telecommunications infrastructure and the cost of keeping networks operational.
The scale of the disruption is putting pressure on investments made by telecom operators to expand coverage and improve network capacity. MTN Nigeria alone has invested ₦1.62 trillion in network expansion and modernisation since 2025, while total industry investment has reached ₦2.1 trillion.
The Brandspur Banking News Desk reports that Nnamdi Chife, vice president for Military Relations at Terra Industries and a counter insurgency specialist, identified repeated fibre damage as one of the biggest obstacles to reliable telecommunications services in Nigeria.
Chife, citing Nigerian Communications Commission data, said the country has recorded about 27,000 fibre cuts cumulatively. In May 2026 alone, fibre damage was linked to 183 of the 245 major network outages recorded during the month, accounting for roughly 75 per cent of the disruptions.
The problem comes as operators continue to spend heavily on expanding their networks. By September 2026, MTN had deployed 70 per cent of its planned 12,179 coverage and capacity sites, representing significant progress in its infrastructure expansion programme.
However, the investment is being exposed to repeated damage, particularly along roads and other construction corridors where telecommunications infrastructure and civil works often occupy the same spaces.
Chife said Nigeria’s early fibre deployment relied heavily on federal and state road rights of way because they offered accessible and relatively affordable routes. But the absence of a shared, geo referenced national map showing the location of buried cables has made subsequent construction work more likely to damage the infrastructure.
Road construction has been identified by the Federal Ministry of Works as the primary cause of fibre damage, while earlier deployment practices, including shallow trenching, inadequate ducts, limited warning systems and poor signage, have added to the vulnerability of the network.
Telecom operators have introduced rapid response repair teams, redundant routes and ring network designs to reduce the effect of individual fibre cuts. These measures, however, come with substantial repair costs and can redirect money that would otherwise support further network expansion.
The industry has also pushed for stronger regulatory protection. Following lobbying by the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria and the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, a presidential order issued in June 2024 designated telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure and made wilful damage a criminal offence.
Operators have also worked with state ICT agencies on fibre route mapping and promoted the Call Before You Dig campaign to warn construction companies about underground telecom infrastructure.
Chife argued that enforcement remains inconsistent and called for a National Fibre Atlas containing a central digital map of critical fibre routes. He also recommended that new road projects include concrete ducts for telecom cables and that cases of wilful or negligent damage be prosecuted.
The issue extends beyond telecom operators and their customers. Nigeria’s telecommunications sector contributes more than 14 per cent to the country’s GDP and supports services including banking, fintech, e commerce and government operations, meaning repeated infrastructure damage can affect a much wider part of the economy.
