Nigeria accelerates $2bn fiber project and explores Chad interconnection

Nigeria is accelerating its $2 billion Project BRIDGE, a national fiber infrastructure initiative aimed at expanding the country’s digital backbone from approximately 35,000 kilometers to 125,000 kilometers. Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani announced that the project timeline has been reduced from five years to three years to better provide meaningful, high-speed connectivity to 40 million people currently without internet access.

In a related development, digital ministers from Nigeria and Chad met in N’Djamena to discuss a potential cross-border fiber optic interconnection. This link would allow landlocked Chad to diversify its international internet capacity by accessing routes through Lagos. While technical studies and financing arrangements are still being finalized, the two nations have agreed to have technical teams work out the specific details of the cooperation.

Project BRIDGE is supported by significant international funding, including $500 million from the World Bank and $200 million from the African Development Bank. The project is designed to provide wholesale, open-access infrastructure for telecom operators and internet service providers to expand services into underserved areas.