The way forward looks much clearer now. This is no time for semantics and big talks or even prevarications and over-reliance on legacy achievements of an industry that recorded exponential service deployment in over two decades. The time has come for the next level of growth to address the challenges of the industry and meet the ever-mounting service demands by the subscribers. The new field, according to Dr Aminu Maida, EVC of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is digital connectivity, which is what matters to a trader waiting for payment transactions to go through, to the student joining an online class or even the businessman serving customers across the country. They all need a digital connection at that time. He noted that as cloud services and artificial intelligence become more widely used, dependence on digital connectivity will deepen. Is connectivity simply replacing inclusivity?
Last week, a stellar cast of characters gathered in Abuja for the Nigeria Connectivity Investment Forum to address the subject of digital connectivity without emotions and with all their knowledge, to proffer bold solutions on how best to enhance connectivity in the country and release a fresh burst of service provisioning, creativity and usage in the telecom ecosystem. After two days of detailed deliberations, the forum came to some audacious decisions and resolutions, even giving timelines to meet some targets set for the industry while portioning out responsibilities to the various stakeholders. Drawn from government and the various industries to discuss the theme, Unlocking Infrastructure Investment through Data, Transparency and Partnerships, participants included: Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; Dr Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, who was represented; Bolaji Balogun, Chief Executive Officer of Chapel Hill Denham, who provided an investor’s perspective on Financing Digital Infrastructure; and Bismarck Rewane, Chairman of the Board of FCMB and Managing Director of Financial Directives Company, who provided insights on the broader economic and financial environment for infrastructure investment.
The forum also enjoyed the support and participation of Swedfund and Ookla, credited with providing independent evidence which reduces investor uncertainty in the nation’s telecom industry, and Ericsson, which, in a presentation, suggested sundry rollout possibilities to manage cost, declaring that investment logic demands that “the decision is not more technology – it is the right coverage model for the investment need.” Looking at Connectivity to Economic Value, GSMA said, “Africa’s biggest connectivity challenge is now usage, not coverage.” The problem, however, is that connectivity has to happen for usage to follow.
A little recall may be needed here. Balogun was a pioneer founder of Econet, which today operates as Airtel, and is roundly equipped with all needed information from the telecom industry as well as the financial sector. He said in his presentation that “one hand cannot tie a bundle,” so funding in the industry would always demand partnership. Rewane maintained a profound voice in finances and investment and, only last week, simply ridiculed the nation’s energy capacity, which hardly rises above 5,000 megawatts of electricity for a nation of about 230 million people. He would always speak truth to every situation, and this is just one of them. It may serve our interests to take a closer look at the effect of such energy provision on digital connectivity.
After two days of information download and digestion, the forum came to some hard observations, which are stated in a communique as follows: Demand is outgrowing the networks – Nigeria consumed about 1.6 million terabytes of data in July 2026, an increase of almost 47 percent in twelve months, and subscriptions are projected to grow from about 195 million towards 350 million within ten to fifteen years. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence will place further demand on networks, data centers and, above all, power; Digital Connectivity is economic infrastructure – Telecommunications and information services accounted for 9.72 percent of Nigeria’s real GDP in the second quarter of 2026, and mobile contributed about $240 billion to Africa’s economy in 2025; Usage, rather than coverage, is now the larger gap – Mobile broadband covers about 90 percent of Nigerians, yet smartphone ownership stands at about 27 percent and broadband penetration is at 57 percent against a 70 percent target. Device affordability, digital skills and trust are the binding constraints, and coverage investment alone cannot close them.
The forum therefore made the following calls: The Federal Government should accelerate the delivery of Project BRIDGE, the 90,000 km national fibre backbone; The Nigerian Communications Commission should sustain the reforms already improving investment conditions; State Governments should cut and harmonise Right of Way and site permit charges; Operators, infrastructure and technology companies should pursue shared-infrastructure and neutral-host models that lower cost of rural and indoor coverage; and Investors and development finance institutions should match long-life assets with long-tenor naira capital.
A novel outcome of the forum is that it also released Priority Actions and Partnership Pathways, which had timelines of various actions and who should take them. For instance, it says, within six months: secure funding for community co-owned rural networks powered by renewable energy in zero-connectivity communities, through partnership with the Universal Service Provision Fund, State governments and the Rural Electricity Agency. There are other timelines. While I am not too excited about the outcome of the Forum, which, some participants say, was a resounding success, I want to observe here that the real outcomes will start to count when we begin to measure the deliverables by their timelines. The forum has set the targets. Even as I credit them for their bold decisions, I want to state here very clearly that we shall judge them by the targets they have set for themselves.
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