For millions of Nigerians, the promise of a digital economy is still measured in something far more basic than artificial intelligence or global technology partnerships: whether a phone call connects, a WhatsApp message goes through, a bank transfer succeeds and mobile data works when it is needed.
That reality is putting the digital economy agenda of Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, under a sharper test as the administration approaches another October 1 anniversary.
Tijani came into office with an ambitious mandate to reposition technology from a supporting sector into a major driver of economic growth. His ministry has pursued artificial intelligence, digital skills, broadband expansion, innovation funding, technology diplomacy and large-scale infrastructure projects.
But three years into the administration, the country’s telecommunications industry still faces a stubborn contradiction: digital adoption is accelerating faster than the infrastructure and service quality needed to sustain it.
Nigeria’s broadband subscriptions rose to 124.42 million in July 2026 from 104.07 million a year earlier, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Yet the growth in users has not eliminated the everyday frustrations of unreliable connectivity.
The central question now is whether Tijani’s biggest infrastructure promise: Project BRIDGE, can finally close that gap.
The 90,000km promise
Project BRIDGE has become perhaps the clearest measure of Tijani’s infrastructure ambitions.
The Federal Government plans to deploy at least 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables through a public-private partnership, at an estimated cost of $2 billion. The project is intended to expand Nigeria’s backbone towards about 120,000km and provide the foundational connectivity needed for universal digital access. The government says more than 33 million Nigerians remain offline. But the physical rollout has taken longer than initially expected.
In May, Tijani acknowledged that Nigeria’s connectivity problems were structural and linked to years of underinvestment. He said Project BRIDGE had secured World Bank-led funding and that fibre deployment, alongside new tower rollouts under the Nigeria Universal Communication Access Project (NUCAP), would commence before the end of 2026.
In August, the minister gave a more specific timeline, saying implementation of the 90,000km project would begin in October.
Then, in September, the government shortened the expected delivery period from five years to three years, with the project now targeting completion in 2028.
The change creates a new pressure point for the ministry: October is no longer simply a promised start date. It is becoming a test of whether the government’s infrastructure programme can move from financing and planning into visible deployment.*
Recent reports indicate that about $800 million of the estimated $2 billion financing requirement has been covered through commitments from the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, leaving about $1.2 billion to be mobilised from private capital.
For technology policy expert Jide Awe, the problem is not the ambition of Project BRIDGE but the pace at which Nigerians can see its impact.
According to Awe, Nigerians have seen fibre construction in parts of Lagos and some private developments, but the scale is not yet comparable with what should be expected from a national infrastructure intervention.
‘With that kind of initiative, you want it to be more of a massive rollout that will be countrywide. Even if it is not immediately countrywide, at least the major urban areas should have started feeling the impact,’ he said in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay.
The last-mile problem
Even if the government successfully lays 90,000km of fibre, the fibre itself will not automatically put millions of Nigerians online.
This is the more complicated second phase of the connectivity challenge. Nigeria needs electricity, affordable devices, affordable data, reliable towers, fibre backhaul and local access networks to convert backbone infrastructure into actual household and business connectivity.
That means Project BRIDGE could solve a major infrastructure deficit without, by itself, solving Nigeria’s digital inclusion problem.
The ministry itself says the project is designed to connect schools and hospitals, expand financial and digital inclusion and create economic opportunities. But the test will ultimately be whether a trader in a congested market, a student in a rural community or a small business outside the major cities experiences a materially better connection.
That is where the infrastructure debate moves from kilometres of fibre to meaningful connectivity.
Telecom tariffs rose, but consumers still want better service
The financial sustainability of telecom operators became one of the biggest industry debates during Tijani’s tenure.
Operators argued that years of inflation, foreign-exchange losses, energy costs and higher equipment expenses had made existing tariffs unsustainable.
In 2024, Gbenga Adebayo, ALTON chairman, argued that telecom tariffs had not kept pace with the economic realities facing operators and warned that inadequate pricing was affecting the industry’s ability to invest in infrastructure and maintain service quality.
By early 2025, the NCC approved a tariff adjustment of up to 50 percent under its tariff review framework. But the increase came with an important expectation: operators were expected to use improved revenues to sustain and improve network investment and service quality.
That leaves the ministry facing a delicate equation. Consumers are paying more. Operators say they need the additional revenue to remain sustainable and invest. Yet subscribers continue to judge the industry by the quality of the service they receive.
The tariff debate, therefore, has not ended. It has simply moved to the next question: Where is the corresponding improvement in service quality?
The NCC introduced a compensation framework in April 2026 requiring mobile network operators to compensate eligible subscribers affected by prolonged or repeated poor-quality service in areas where operators fail to meet prescribed quality-of-service benchmarks. Compensation is automatic and is calculated using factors including subscriber usage and network performance.
The policy is an important shift because it moves service-quality regulation beyond warnings and complaints towards direct consumer compensation. But its very existence also highlights how deep the problem has become.
Awe said the quality of telecom services remains a major concern despite the increase in tariffs. ‘I am even suffering from it now,’ he said, describing how poor connectivity had forced him to use another person’s phone to access the internet.
His complaint is not merely about convenience. Nigeria’s economy increasingly depends on mobile connectivity for banking, payments, commerce, work, education and communication.
When connectivity fails, the economic consequences can extend beyond a dropped call.
Network congestion is becoming an economic problem
The problem is particularly visible in Nigeria’s markets. Awe said he had encountered situations in major markets, including Balogun Market, where network congestion made it difficult to complete simple electronic transfers.
The implication is significant. Nigeria has invested heavily in the transition towards digital payments, but the effectiveness of that transition depends on the availability of reliable connectivity.
A merchant may have a bank account, POS terminal and smartphone, but if the network cannot process the transaction, the country’s digital infrastructure has failed at the point where the citizen actually interacts with it.
This is why the telecom sector cannot be treated simply as another technology subsector. It has become a piece of economic infrastructure.
Data adoption is running ahead of infrastructure
Deolu Ogunbanjo, national president of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), said the country’s infrastructure has not kept pace with the speed at which Nigerians are moving towards data services. ‘Everything is now data,’ Ogunbanjo told BusinessDay.
His argument is straightforward: Nigerians have rapidly changed their consumption habits, but infrastructure investment has not moved at the same speed.
The NCC’s statistics show the scale of the transition. Broadband subscriptions reached 124.42 million in July 2026, up from 104.07 million in July 2025.
The growth means more Nigerians are consuming video, using cloud applications, conducting digital banking, working remotely, learning online and communicating through internet-based platforms.
Yet the network supporting all of this remains vulnerable to congestion, fibre cuts, inadequate backhaul and infrastructure limitations.
Ogunbanjo therefore believes Nigeria needs substantially more infrastructure providers and stronger competition.
He said Nigeria should encourage more operators and allow smaller players to serve specific communities, states or local government areas rather than assuming that every telecommunications service must operate at national scale. ‘Everything does not have to be national,’ he said.
Starlink’s entry into Nigeria, according to Ogunbanjo, illustrates the effect that an additional player can have on the market. ‘Since Starlink came, all the ISPs were sitting up,’ he said.
The argument is not that existing operators have failed to invest. Rather, stakeholders want regulators to create an environment where investment by new and smaller players can translate into meaningful competitive pressure.
For the ministry and NCC, this creates a difficult policy balance: attracting investment while ensuring that market concentration does not weaken incentives to improve quality.
Infrastructure security remains an unfinished problem
Another weakness is the security of telecommunications infrastructure.
Awe argued that Nigeria has spent years discussing the need to protect telecom infrastructure as critical national infrastructure, yet fibre and other telecommunications assets remain vulnerable to vandalism, theft and damage.
He questioned whether there have been sufficient consequences for those responsible. ‘What are the consequences? Who has been tried for some of these damages?’ he asked.
The issue matters because every damaged fibre route can affect thousands of users and businesses, while repairs can take time and add costs to operators.
A national fibre programme therefore requires more than money to lay cables. It requires a security architecture capable of protecting those assets after they are deployed.
From 3MTT to global talent: the next test is value creation
Tijani’s agenda extends well beyond telecommunications. The 3 Million Technical Talent programme has become one of the administration’s most visible digital-skills initiatives, with the ministry positioning it as a pipeline for training Nigerians in areas such as software development, data analysis, AI, cloud computing and cybersecurity.
In May 2026, the ministry announced a partnership with Hello.cv aimed at giving 20,000 3MTT fellows access to global recruiters through a package including a personal .cv domain, AI-powered job-search tools and professional CV services, with the activation valued at more than $10 million.
But the initiative has also raised questions about data sovereignty and the retention of economic value within Nigeria.
Stakeholders cited concerns over the use of foreign domains and the handling of data generated by the 20,000 fellows.
Jude Ozinegbe, global digital economy strategist and CEO of Cyberchain, said the Nigeria Data Protection Commission should examine the security implications of the arrangement.
Ugonma Egwuatu of ECAM Global Services similarly argued that the NDPC should examine how the data is handled and what happens on the backend.
The debate goes beyond the domain name itself. It touches on a larger question facing the ministry: how does Nigeria become a digital economy that exports talent and technology without also exporting the economic value, data and intellectual property generated by that talent?
Adebunmi Adeola Akinbo, CEO of DNS Africa, argued that the country’s .ng domain could have been incorporated into the initiative.
Muhammed Rudman, CEO of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, also questioned why Nigerian talent trained with Nigerian resources should have their digital presence tied to a foreign country-code domain.
These concerns do not by themselves establish that the 3MTT arrangement violates data-protection rules. They do, however, raise questions about due diligence, data governance and the ministry’s broader Nigeria First approach to digital infrastructure.
Policy has moved faster than implementation
There is little doubt that Tijani has placed technology higher on the government’s economic agenda.
His ministry has developed a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, pursued AI governance initiatives and more recently advanced plans for a National AI Trust. The ministry says the AI strategy is intended to provide a coordinated framework for AI development, while the AI Trust is intended to guide responsible adoption.
Tijani has also taken on a more prominent international technology role. He was appointed chair of the International Telecommunication Union Council for 2026, giving Nigeria a significant position in global telecommunications policy discussions.
But international recognition and policy announcements ultimately face the same domestic test: implementation.
Awe argues that policies should do more than provide direction. ‘The essence of policy is not just to write it on paper. Apart from providing direction, it should stimulate the economy, stimulate the sector and stimulate the community,’ he said.
That distinction may define the next phase of Tijani’s tenure.
The unfinished digital agenda
Three years into the administration, the scorecard is therefore not a simple story of failure or success.
There has been movement on digital skills, AI policy, technology diplomacy, infrastructure financing and telecom consumer protection. The government has also secured substantial development-finance commitments for Project BRIDGE and says physical fibre deployment will begin in October.
But some of the most important outcomes remain works in progress. The 90,000km fibre network has yet to become a nationwide physical reality. Telecom users continue to complain about service quality. Network congestion is affecting digital transactions in some locations. The industry is seeking more infrastructure investment and competition. And the ministry’s ambitious digital programmes are increasingly being tested on questions of implementation, data governance and local economic value.
For Tijani, the significance of October 1 is therefore not simply that another year has passed. It is that the administration is entering a period in which announcements will increasingly have to become infrastructure, policies will have to become measurable outcomes, and digital ambition will have to become something Nigerians can feel in their everyday lives.
The 90,000km fibre rollout now offers perhaps the clearest test. If the cables begin going into the ground in October as promised, the next question will be harder: how quickly will they reach the communities that need them, and how much will ordinary Nigerians actually notice?
That may ultimately determine how the Tijani era is remembered, not by the number of policies announced, partnerships signed or kilometres promised, but by whether Nigeria’s digital economy became more reliable, accessible and competitive for the people who use it every day.