Nigeria’s push to expand broadband access is facing a fresh hurdle at the state level, with some governments imposing application fees of up to N700,000 on telecom operators despite a national policy designed to make fibre deployment cheaper.
The charges are undermining the impact of the Federal Government’s N145-per-linear-metre right-of-way (RoW) policy, which was adopted by states following a 2020 directive of the National Economic Council to reduce the cost of laying fibre infrastructure across the country.
Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on the ease of doing business shows that compliance with the N145 benchmark remains uneven, with states applying additional fees or maintaining RoW charges far above the agreed rate.
Ekiti has adopted the N145-per-metre RoW charge but imposes an application fee of N700,000, the highest identified in the data. Taraba charges N350,000, while Cross River collects N250,000 despite also applying the N145 rate.
Adamawa, which has removed its RoW charge, still requires operators to pay N100,000 per application. Oyo adds N50,000 to the N145-per-metre charge, while Yobe imposes N25,000. Gombe, one of the lower-cost states, charges N10,000 in addition to the standard RoW fee.
The result is that the headline RoW rate no longer tells the full story of the cost of deploying fibre in many states.
The problem is even more pronounced in states that have not aligned with the N145 benchmark. Kano charges N2,754 per linear metre, Delta N2,706, Rivers N2,256, Akwa Ibom N2,000 and Osun N1,500. Ogun has the highest listed RoW charge at N6,600 per metre.
For telecom operators, the additional costs come at a time when fibre networks are becoming more important to Nigeria’s digital economy. Fibre provides the backbone for mobile networks, fixed broadband, data centres, cloud services and other digital infrastructure.
Higher deployment costs can therefore affect not only telecom companies but also the speed and economics of expanding connectivity into underserved areas.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, said some states have replaced formal RoW charges with other levies, making their apparent concessions less meaningful.
‘Some states, for example, will tell us right-of-way is zero, but you have to pay a developmental levy per linear meter,’ Adebayo added. He listed educational, environmental, effluent discharge, capital deployment and application fees among other charges operators may face.
The issue is particularly significant for states seeking to attract digital infrastructure investment. Fibre projects require large upfront capital, while returns can take years to develop, especially in areas with low population density or limited purchasing power.
That makes government-imposed costs an important factor in deciding where operators deploy first.
A state that charges N145 per metre but requires hundreds of thousands of naira in application fees may still be cheaper than one charging thousands of naira per metre. But when multiple levies are added to permits, inspections and other approvals, the difference between the states can become substantial.
The fragmented system also raises the risk that operators will concentrate investment in commercially attractive locations rather than expand evenly across the country.
Adebayo said some states have become commercially unattractive because of both the cost of RoW and the way approvals are handled.
The Federal Government’s original N145 policy was intended to remove one of the biggest barriers to fibre deployment by creating a predictable national framework. Six years later, the data suggests that the challenge has shifted from the headline RoW rate to enforcement, additional charges and state-level implementation.
For Nigeria, the stakes are larger than the cost of individual fibre projects. Broadband expansion depends on dense fibre networks, and the cost of those networks ultimately affects the economics of extending reliable internet services to more households and businesses.
‘Unless the federal and state governments can align the full cost of access, rather than only the headline RoW rate, the N145 policy risks delivering a cheaper price on paper without producing a proportionate reduction in the actual cost of building Nigeria’s digital infrastructure,’ Adebayo affirmed.