Nigeria recorded 5,934 fibre-optic cable cuts between January and June 2026, forcing telecommunications operators to spend about ₦2.2 billion repairing damaged infrastructure and restoring services.
The scale of the damage translates to an average of roughly 65 incidents every day, putting additional pressure on networks that support banking, digital payments, businesses, government services, security operations and emergency communications.
The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said the ₦2.2 billion spent by operators covered direct repair costs and did not include revenue lost during network disruptions or funds redirected from planned network expansion. Brandspur Banking News Desk reports that the figures were disclosed at a workshop in Abuja focused on protecting fibre-optic infrastructure during road construction.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has classified telecommunications infrastructure as critical to the country’s economic and social activities. The infrastructure covered includes fibre-optic cables, base stations, data centres, towers and internet exchange points.
The Office of the National Security Adviser has also highlighted the security implications of damage to telecommunications infrastructure, with officials warning that the consequences extend beyond temporary loss of phone or internet services.
For ordinary Nigerians, a damaged fibre route can have consequences that are felt well beyond the point where the cable was cut. Connectivity problems can affect point-of-sale terminals, mobile banking, online payments and other services that depend on communication links between customers, financial institutions and payment processors.
The country’s growing dependence on electronic payments makes the issue more significant. Central Bank of Nigeria data showed that transactions across six major electronic payment channels reached ₦1.053 quadrillion in the first quarter of 2026, compared with ₦1.024 quadrillion in the same period of 2025.
Telecommunications infrastructure also plays a role in emergency response. The NCC’s Emergency Communications Centres use the toll-free 112 number to connect people in distress with agencies including the Police, Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Corps and ambulance services.
The National Economic Council approved 112 as Nigeria’s national emergency number in April 2026 as part of efforts to establish a unified emergency-response system. The NCC currently lists 31 operational Emergency Communications Centres across the country’s six geopolitical zones, while work continues towards activating five additional centres.
The repeated damage to fibre infrastructure has therefore become both an operational and financial concern for the telecommunications industry. Each repair consumes resources that operators could otherwise deploy towards maintaining or expanding their networks.
The government has already placed telecommunications infrastructure within its Critical National Information Infrastructure framework, reflecting the potential consequences of prolonged disruption to systems that underpin economic activity, public services and national security.
As Nigeria’s reliance on digital payments, online services and telecommunications continues to grow, the frequency and cost of fibre cuts are becoming increasingly difficult for operators and users to absorb.
