Nigeria’s Digital Economy Grows Faster Than The Cables Holding It Together

Nigeria’s digital economy is expanding at a pace that is increasingly exposing the fragility of the infrastructure carrying it, with electronic payments reaching a record N1.053 quadrillion in the first quarter of 2026 while 5,934 fibre-optic cable cuts were recorded across the country in the first six months of the year.

The electronic payments figure, contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Q1 2026 Quarterly Statistical Bulletin, represents a 2.85 per cent increase from N1.024 quadrillion recorded in the same period of 2025.

The CBN data covers mobile payments, automated teller machines, instant payments, Point of Sale terminals, web transactions and cheques, highlighting the scale of economic activity increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure.

Mobile Pay recorded the strongest growth in transaction volume, rising 28.60 per cent year-on-year to 2.67 billion transactions, while its value increased 7.73 per cent to N112.12 trillion.

The Nigeria Instant Payment system processed 1.82 billion transactions valued at N320.76 trillion. Although transaction volume declined by 17.70 per cent, the value increased 12.55 per cent.

Web transactions were valued at N516.10 trillion, up from N461.96 trillion in Q1 2025, while POS transactions stood at N59.33 trillion, down from N70.98 trillion.

Against this rapid expansion in electronic activity, data from the Nigerian Communications Commission showed that 5,934 fibre cuts occurred between January and June 2026, an average of about 65 incidents every day.

The problem also worsened sharply during the period. NCC records showed 1,883 cuts in the first quarter, compared with 4,051 in the second quarter.

The concentration of disruptions is particularly significant because Abuja, Lagos, Rivers, Kano and Kaduna, which recorded some of the highest incidents, are also major centres of banking, fintech, enterprise and other digital activities.

Effiom Ewa, Director of Critical National Security and Infrastructure Protection at the Office of the National Security Adviser, said fibre damage had consequences far beyond telecommunications.

“Every fibre-optic cable damage is more than a disruption to a network, or simply a cable cut,” Ewa said at the NCC stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja.

“It is indeed a disruption to governance, economic productivity, public services, and the daily lives of Nigerians.”

He noted that fibre-optic infrastructure has been designated Critical National Information Infrastructure under Nigerian law, adding that damage caused by negligence or interference could constitute a criminal offence.

The Federal Ministry of Works also acknowledged the growing conflict between road construction and underground telecommunications infrastructure.

Olarinre Adeladan, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, said appropriate mapping and coordination with telecommunications operators before excavation would help prevent cable damage.

She said the ministry would work with the NCC to develop joint protocols for federally funded road projects.

Nadungu Gagare, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, said a joint Standing Committee on the Protection of Fibre Optic Cables had expanded its membership to include the Office of the National Security Adviser.

“The committee is not just a consultative body,” Gagare said, adding that it had “a mandate to produce enforceable coordination frameworks within a defined timeline.”

NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Aminu Maida, recalled that fibre cuts during February 2024, including those linked to road construction, contributed to a near network-wide disruption for one telecommunications operator, affecting millions of users for several hours.

“To a machine operator on a construction site, it may appear to be one buried cable,” Maida said.

“To the nation, it can mean failed calls, stalled payments, interrupted services and missed opportunities.”

The financial cost to operators is also rising. Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, said the industry incurred N2.2 billion in direct repair costs from fibre cuts during the first half of 2026 alone.

He called for road contractors to obtain clearance from the NCC before excavation in areas containing mapped underground telecommunications infrastructure.

The NCC is pursuing a centralised underground infrastructure mapping database and has drafted a framework requiring pre-excavation notification to network operators, with financial penalties for contractors who damage marked infrastructure.

However, the proposed measures are yet to become enforceable rules, while the mapping database remains incomplete in some states.

The commission has set a target of reducing fibre-cut incidents by 40 per cent before the end of 2026.

With an average of 989 incidents recorded monthly in the first half, achieving that reduction would require the monthly rate to fall to about 593 incidents in the second half of the year.

The widening gap between Nigeria’s rapidly expanding digital transactions and the infrastructure supporting them underscores the growing economic cost of treating fibre networks as ordinary underground utilities rather than essential national infrastructure