Dare Osamo, Chief Executive Officer of Impact Energy and Logistics Limited, has warned that recurring fibre-optic cable cuts could cost Nigeria about ₦70 billion annually, raising fresh concerns over damage to the critical infrastructure supporting banking, telecommunications and the wider digital economy.
Osamo, speaking on Channels Television’s Business Morning, based the estimate on more than 5,000 fibre-cut incidents reported in the first six months of 2026 and projected that the figure could reach about 10,000 if the same pace continues through the year.
“For now, the reported cases, it’s about 5,000 for the first six months,” Osamo said. “You put that in context, that is about 10,000 per annum, and it comes to about 70 billion in Naira. That is enormous.”
The incident figure underpinning his calculation broadly aligns with official data from the Nigerian Communications Commission, which said on 11 August that more than 5,000 fibre cuts arising from road construction, excavation and related civil works were recorded in the first half of 2026.
The ₦70 billion figure, however, is Osamo’s estimate rather than an official NCC assessment of the industry’s annual losses.
His projection also comes against a complex historical picture. In February 2025, NCC Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Aminu Maida, disclosed that Nigeria had experienced more than 50,000 fibre-cut incidents in the preceding year, with about 30,000 attributed to federal and state road construction activities.
The difference between those figures and the more than 5,000 incidents cited for the first half of 2026 reflects differences in the periods and categories being reported. The NCC’s August 2026 figure specifically referred to incidents associated with road construction, excavation and related civil works.
For Osamo, however, the numbers tell only part of the story.
He said the first-half figure translates to almost 30 reported incidents every day, while other cases may never enter official records.
“This is aside costs that are not reported nationwide. So it’s a massive and endemic issue in Nigeria at the moment,” he said.
The disruption can reach far beyond a damaged cable buried beneath a road.
Fibre networks carry the enormous volumes of data required for mobile and fixed broadband services. When critical routes are severed, the effects can spread to voice calls, internet access, bank transfers, Point of Sale transactions and other services on which businesses and households increasingly depend.
That vulnerability has already produced visible consequences.
In February 2024, millions of MTN Nigeria customers struggled to make calls and access data for several hours after multiple fibre cuts caused a major network outage. The NCC subsequently cited the incident as an example of how damage during road construction can escalate into widespread service disruption.
The regulator’s incident records continue to show the practical consequences. A major 9mobile fibre-cut incident reported on 31 January 2026 affected voice, SMS, data and USSD services across locations in several states, while an Airtel fibre failure on 2 June affected services across communities in 11 states.
Osamo said the immediate financial responsibility for restoring damaged infrastructure generally falls on telecommunications operators, even where another party may ultimately be responsible for the damage.
“At the moment, most of the costs are being borne by the telecoms company,” he said, adding that operators must restore their networks before pursuing compensation.
The broader cost, he argued, eventually reaches ordinary Nigerians.
“The common people are the ones that bear the cost the most because the cost is affecting them the most when you can’t use some POS infrastructure,” Osamo said.
Previous industry assessments lend weight to concerns about the financial burden, although they put earlier losses below Osamo’s current estimate.
Repairs and revenue losses arising from damaged fibre cables were estimated at nearly ₦27 billion in 2023, according to industry documents reported in 2024. MTN Nigeria alone recorded more than 6,000 fibre cuts that year.
The GSMA’s Nigeria Digital Economy Report also found that operators have had to spend heavily on repairs, fibre relocation and network redundancy.
MTN relocated 1,069 kilometres of fibre in 2022 and another 1,433 kilometres in 2023, with budgets of ₦4.4 billion and ₦6.7 billion respectively, according to the report.
The GSMA noted that such expenditure carries an opportunity cost because money devoted to repairing and relocating existing infrastructure could instead be invested in extending broadband networks into underserved areas.
Osamo identified civil works, particularly road construction, as the leading source of damage.
“The biggest culprits in this are the road construction,” he said, explaining that roads and telecommunications infrastructure frequently share the same corridors.
He estimated that civil works could account for almost 90 per cent of fibre damage, although the NCC’s previously published nationwide figures suggest the proportion can vary depending on the reporting period and category of incidents.
Official figures for 2024, for example, put road construction-related incidents at about 30,000 out of more than 50,000 fibre cuts nationwide, or roughly 60 per cent.
The underlying coordination problem has been recognised by the Federal Government.
In February 2025, the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy inaugurated a Joint Standing Committee on the Protection of Fibre Optic Cables.
The committee was established to improve communication between road authorities, contractors, the NCC and telecommunications operators before and during construction and rehabilitation projects.
Its mandate includes developing standard engagement procedures, improving information sharing and ensuring that fibre routes are considered during the planning and design of road projects.
By August 2026, the NCC said the committee’s membership had been expanded to include representatives of the Office of the National Security Adviser, reflecting the wider national-security significance attached to telecommunications infrastructure.
Nigeria has also strengthened the legal status of such assets.
The Federal Government’s Critical National Information Infrastructure framework designates telecommunications networks, fibre-optic cables, base stations, towers, data centres and other essential ICT facilities as critical infrastructure deserving national protection.
That designation recognises how deeply communications networks have become woven into banking, commerce, healthcare, education, security and government services.
Maida underscored that dependence at an NCC stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja in August.
“To a machine operator on a construction site, it may appear to be one buried cable. To the nation, it can mean failed calls, stalled payments, interrupted services and missed opportunities,” the NCC chief said.
Osamo similarly argued that protecting fibre should no longer be regarded solely as a responsibility for telecommunications companies.
“There is a working relationship that helps us protect this critical infrastructure asset that carries the digital economy,” he said.
He called for stronger cooperation among telecom operators, road contractors, government agencies, communities, artisans, vendors and members of the public, alongside greater awareness of the consequences of damaging underground telecommunications infrastructure.
“There is a need for massive education on the side of the community, on the side of the stakeholders,” Osamo said.
The challenge is particularly significant as Nigeria seeks to deepen broadband penetration and shift more commercial and public services online.
Every damaged route can therefore carry two costs: the immediate expense of restoring connectivity and the less visible loss of transactions, productivity and opportunities while services remain unavailable.
For a trader unable to receive a POS payment, a business cut off from cloud services or a customer unable to complete a bank transaction, a severed cable beneath a construction site can quickly become a very human economic problem.
And while the precise annual cost of Nigeria fibre cuts remains subject to differing industry estimates and methodologies, the evidence points to a persistent infrastructure challenge whose impact stretches well beyond telecommunications companies.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
