Nigeria is working on making it illegal to destroy broadband fiber cables in response to complaints from major telecom companies like MTN Nigeria Communications Plc.
Officials who know about the situation say that the Works Ministry, which supervises federal road builders, is almost done making rules, according to a Thursday Bloomberg report.
These rules are expected to become a law by President Bola Tinubu's executive order.
Despite existing laws against vandalism, authorities want to closely watch construction companies more.
The upcoming executive order will bring harsh penalties for offenders, but details and the signing date are not yet revealed.
A senior aide to the president, Temitope Ajayi, said, “Telecom assets are essential to the economy, and the Telecommunications Companies Association has been asking for this for years.”
“New rules will assure that the Nigerian government protects their investments from vandals and criminals.”
The Nigerian Communications Commission predicts that the sector will make up over a fifth of the country’s GDP by 2027, up from 13.5% in the third quarter of last year.
This move will ease pressure on the telecom industry, which is dealing with higher operating costs and sales pressures due to currency depreciation and a threefold increase in energy prices.
Last year, repairs and lost revenue from damaged cables cost the industry nearly N27bn ($23m), as revealed in Bloomberg documents. MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa Plc suffered the most.
According to documents, MTN had more than 6,000 cuts on its fiber cable last year. On February 28, cuts in its network by a road construction firm, an oil service company, and someone burning trash caused over five hours of data and voice outages.
Between 2022 and 2023, the operator moved 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) of vulnerable fiber cables, costing more than N11bn — enough to build 870 kilometers of new fiber lines in areas with no coverage.
The head of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, would welcome a presidential order on this matter.
He said, “When it comes to communication infrastructure, they are destroyed at will, so we are eagerly awaiting the president’s order. It would be a great boost to the industry and encourage investment.”
