Nigeria’s telecommunications operators reported more than 3,200 cases of equipment theft between January and August 2025, adding to the operational challenges that are slowing broadband rollout in one of Africa’s biggest economies.

The regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, said the industry also suffered 19,384 fibre cuts and over 19,000 incidents of denial of access to telecom sites in the same period.

“These disruptions have caused prolonged outages, revenue losses, increased security costs, and delayed service restoration,” the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Aminu Maida, told stakeholders this week at a business roundtable in Abuja. “They demonstrate why infrastructure protection must be at the centre of our collective agenda.”

The meeting, held at the NCC Digital Economy Complex, focused on ‘Right of Way and Protection of Broadband Infrastructure – The Road to Success in Broadband Investment and Connectivity’.

Maida said that safeguarding telecom assets was now a national priority, pointing to a Presidential Order on Critical National Information Infrastructure signed in June 2024 by President Bola Tinubu.

The directive empowers law enforcement agencies to prosecute vandalism and theft of telecom facilities and tasks the NCC, in partnership with the Office of the National Security Adviser, with ensuring its enforcement.

“To achieve this, we have set up a Telecommunications Industry Working Group to coordinate its operationalisation,” Maida said. He added that the Commission had launched a broad awareness campaign using television, radio, social media, and community engagement to mobilise citizens against vandalism.

The NCC noted that ONSA had, in the last two years, successfully dismantled major cartels involved in telecom equipment theft across the country. “Through mediation, enforcement, and prosecutions of vandals, the NCC and ONSA are giving practical effect to the Presidential Order in safeguarding Nigeria’s digital lifelines,” the executive noted.

Despite these efforts, challenges persist. The regulator highlighted fragmented right-of-way regimes across states, inconsistent enforcement of infrastructure protection laws, weak coordination with road authorities, unreliable energy supply, multiple taxation, and lengthy permitting processes as continuing obstacles to broadband investment.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has been seeking to expand broadband penetration as part of its digital economy agenda. Industry players say progress has been slowed by operational costs and infrastructure sabotage, which inflate expenses for telecom companies and delay network rollout.

“The sector cannot thrive if operators continue to battle theft and vandalism at this scale,” Maida said. “Broadband is central to Nigeria’s economic future, and protecting infrastructure is non-negotiable.”