More than 5,000 fibre-cut incidents were recorded across Nigeria in the first six months of 2026, with road construction, excavation and other civil works responsible for a large share of the damage, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The regulator is now calling on road construction companies, contractors, engineers, telecom operators and government agencies to improve how they work together to prevent damage to fibre-optic cables during construction.
The NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Dr. Aminu Maida, made the call on August 11 at a stakeholders’ workshop on protecting fibre-optic cables during road construction and other civil works in Abuja.
Road construction is damaging Nigeria’s fibre networks
Fibre-optic cables carry data between networks and help power many of the services Nigerians use every day, from mobile calls and internet access to banking, healthcare, education and online businesses.
When construction work damages these cables, the effect can go beyond the area where the work is taking place. A cut on an important fibre route can disrupt network services for thousands or even millions of people.
Maida recalled the major telecommunications disruption in February 2024, when fibre cuts linked to road construction contributed to an almost nationwide outage on one network. Millions of users were affected for several hours, while other networks came under additional pressure as customers tried to switch providers.
The latest figure shows that the problem has not gone away. More than 5,000 fibre-cut incidents were recorded between January and June 2026, with road construction, excavation and related civil works accounting for much of the damage.
For the NCC, the country’s effort to build and improve physical infrastructure should not create new problems for the digital infrastructure that already supports businesses and essential services.
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NCC wants road projects and telecom operators to work together
The NCC says the issue is not about blaming road contractors for every fibre cut.
According to Maida, construction companies are not deliberately trying to damage telecom infrastructure, just as telecom operators do not want to get in the way of road projects. The bigger problem is that both sides do not always have enough information about each other’s infrastructure before work begins.
The regulator wants that to change.
The Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy have inaugurated a Standing Committee on the Protection of Fibre Optic Cables.
The committee will work on ways for government agencies, contractors and telecom operators to coordinate before, during and after road construction. Representatives of the Office of the National Security Adviser have also been included because of the importance of telecom infrastructure to national security.
The NCC wants this kind of coordination to become part of the planning process for road projects instead of something that happens only after a cable has already been damaged.
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The cost of damaging Nigeria’s fibre network
The more than 5,000 fibre cuts recorded in the first half of 2026 are part of a much larger problem.
In 2025, Nigeria recorded more than 50,000 fibre-cut incidents, according to figures previously released by the NCC, with about 30,000 linked to federal and state road construction.
The repeated damage means telecom companies have to spend money repairing cables and restoring services that could otherwise go towards expanding and improving their networks.
The impact also reaches ordinary Nigerians. When a major fibre route is damaged, people may lose access to mobile services or the internet, businesses can struggle to process digital transactions, and services that depend on connectivity can be interrupted.
Fiber cuts also come with huge financial costs to the telcos. In 2023, it was estimated that the telecommunication industry lost almost N27bn ($23m) in repairs and revenue losses from damaged cables.
MTN, the country’s largest telecom firm, which turned a profit of N1.09 trillion in the first half of 2026, suffered more than 6,000 cuts on its fiber cable in 2023.
The NCC has classified telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure, meaning it is considered important to Nigeria’s security, economy and essential services and requires greater protection.
This is why the regulator wants fibre protection to be considered before road construction begins, rather than after a disruption has already occurred.