More than 5,000 fibre-optic cables were damaged across Nigeria in the first six months of 2026, with road construction, excavation and other civil works posing a growing risk to the country’s digital services and economic activity.
Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at a stakeholder workshop on protecting fibre-optic cables during road construction, rehabilitation and other civil works.
Maida said the scale of the damage showed the cost of poor coordination among telecommunications operators, construction companies and government agencies before excavation and other infrastructure work begins.
“A damaged fibre cable is therefore not simply a cost to an operator; it is a cost to Nigerians and to the wider economy,” Maida said.
Fibre infrastructure supports many parts of the Nigerian economy, including banking, government services, education, healthcare, commerce, security and emergency communications.
