By Our Reporter
Leading telecoms operator, MTN Nigeria, spent N11.1 billion repairing and relocating 2,502km of fibre-optic cables in two years.
This revelation is contained in the just released GSMA Nigeria Digital Economy report
The report stated that if these funds had been used for rollout instead of maintenance, the operator with 77 million subscribers could have laid an additional 870 km of new fibre.
The costs showed that MTN spent N4.4billion in the 2022 financial year to repair 1,069 kilometre of fibre and an additional N6.7billion in 2023 to fix 1,433 kilometre.
It attributed the fibre damages to construction activities, road projects, and acts of vandalism.
The impact of fibre cuts continues to hinder network expansion, with funds allocated to repairs potentially diverting resources from expanding coverage in under-served areas.
“As a result, fibre networks in Nigeria are more expensive to build and maintain than they otherwise would be.
“These costs are substantial. For instance, MTN Nigeria was required to relocate 1,069 kilometres of fibre cables in FY22 and a further 1,433 kilometres in FY23. The budgets allocated for these activities were N4.4billion and N6.7billion respectively”, the document stated.
Speaking on the matter, the Head of Sub-Saharan Africa – GSMA, Angela Wamola, said that vandalism and other forms of damage have been causing significant losses to the sector.
“In some cases, the affected areas are easily accessible and can be quickly repaired.
“However, the damage has resulted in sustained complaints from consumers about the availability of services.
“This is one of the areas we’ve modeled in our report, which highlights the impact of vandalism on
the evolution of connectivity in Nigeria”, he said.
Fibre-optic cables are vital critical telecom infrastructure for connectivity because they bring network capacity closer to subscribers.
As of 2023, Nigeria had deployed 78,676 kilometres of fibre-optic cable, with most concentrated in urban areas like Lagos (7,864.60km), Edo (4,892.71km), FCT (4,472.03km), Ogun (4,189.18km) and Niger (3,681.66km).
The GSMA report added that telcos have adopted several strategies to address the ongoing problem of excessive cable cuts.
At the design and planning stages, operators anticipate potential cable damage by incorporating additional protection into the cable infrastructure and increasing maintenance budgets—steps that have significantly raised the overall cost of telecom infrastructure in Nigeria.