On October 7, 2025, during the 31st Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Dr. Bosun Tijani dropped a bombshell that could reshape Nigeria’s digital future: a $2 billion broadband project aimed at connecting all 774 local government areas within three years.
Here’s the deal: Nigeria’s currently sitting at around 50% broadband penetration, which means millions of Nigerians are still offline. And it’s costing us. According to FibreOne’s Chief Experience Officer, this broadband gap bleeds about $15 billion annually from our economy—that’s nearly four times our combined health and education budgets. Ouch.
But Tijani’s got a plan. The project uses a hybrid financing model: 49% government funding and 51% from the private sector, backed by heavyweights like the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and Africa Finance Corporation. The math is compelling too—a 10% rise in broadband access could boost our GDP by up to 2% annually.
“Connectivity is not optional. It’s the foundation of productivity,” Tijani emphasized. He’s not wrong. Right now, ICT contributes about 15% to Nigeria’s GDP, one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. But imagine what happens when we close that connectivity gap.
The ripple effects could be massive. Estimates suggest improved rural broadband access alone could add up to $25 billion annually to Nigeria’s agricultural output. That’s diversification we can actually measure. Plus, with the government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme training digital workers in AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity, we’re not just building infrastructure—we’re building the workforce to leverage it.
IHS Nigeria CEO Mohamad Darwish captured the moment perfectly: “We cannot build a prosperous and inclusive Nigeria by 2030 without digital technology at its core”. The question isn’t whether we need this infrastructure, it’s whether we can execute it fast enough to keep pace with our ambitions.
