Telecommunications operators in Nigeria recorded a dramatic surge in fibre optic cable harm in January 2026, with incidents rising by 900% in comparison with the earlier month, in accordance with official knowledge.
Evaluation of incident studies revealed by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) reveals that fibre cuts elevated from simply 4 circumstances in December 2025 to 40 incidents in January 2026, marking one of many steepest month-on-month spikes lately.
The spike comes regardless of the Federal Authorities’s 2024 designation of telecommunications infrastructure as Important Nationwide Data Infrastructure (CNII), a coverage geared toward defending community property from vandalism and unintentional destruction.
The NCC incident report reveals that after the numerous soar recorded in January, the speed of fibre cuts shouldn’t be slowing down in February both.
Affected operators embody BCN, T2 (9mobile), Airtel, MTN, IPNX, and Layer 3.
Apparently disturbed by the surge recorded in January, the NCC and Nigeria Safety and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) earlier this month issued a joint assertion threatening to prosecute development corporations, contractors, and people liable for damaging fibre optic cables throughout highway development and different civil works.
In accordance with them, avoidable fibre harm brought on by negligence, poor coordination, or unauthorised excavation now constitutes a prison offence below current legal guidelines, stressing that enforcement might be stepped up nationwide.
They warned that the destruction of telecom infrastructure poses a direct menace to nationwide safety, {economic} stability, and public security, particularly as Nigeria turns into more and more reliant on digital connectivity for commerce and public companies.
In accordance with the companies, telecom fibre infrastructure is now formally protected below the Designation and Safety of Important Nationwide Data Infrastructure Order 2024.
They added that offenders, together with development firms, authorities contractors, and people, will face prosecution and relevant sanctions below current legal guidelines, together with the Cybercrimes Prohibition, Prevention, and so on. Act 2015.
Given the excessive fee of incidents already recorded in February, it will appear the warning has but to yield the anticipated affect.
Highlighting the severity of the assaults on telecom infrastructure, Senior Supervisor at Broadbased Communications, Jude Ighomena, revealed that telecom operators misplaced an estimated N5 billion in 2024 because of infrastructure harm in Lagos State alone.
In accordance with him, over 2,500 fibre cuts had been recorded in the identical 12 months, inflicting widespread service disruptions and {financial} losses.
He famous that Lagos’ busiest business districts—Ikeja, Lekki, and Victoria Island—are essentially the most affected, with highway development and personal developments continuously damaging underground fibre cables.
Whereas the CNII criminalizes any type of assault in opposition to telecom infrastructure, the Chairman of the Affiliation of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, mentioned the present lack of efficient prosecution has led to a tradition of impunity, with people and organisations feeling they might harm public infrastructure with out going through penalties.
Citing an instance, Adebayo mentioned:
The ALTON boss harassed the necessity to apply the same method to defending Nigeria’s Important Nationwide Infrastructure (CNI).
He added that by doing so, the federal government wouldn’t solely be defending the business’s infrastructure but additionally guaranteeing the continued provision of important communication companies to the Nigerian individuals.
In August 2024, President Bola Tinubu signed an official gazette designating telecom infrastructure as important nationwide info infrastructure and making it a prison offence for anybody to wilfully destroy such infrastructure within the nation.
In accordance with the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economic system, Dr Bosun Tijani, the gazette, ‘Designation and Safety of Important Nationwide Data Infrastructure Order, 2024’, is a major step that may strengthen and shield investments within the ICT sector.
Nonetheless, that was not the primary time such a declaration can be made. In June 2020, the rapid previous Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Pantami introduced the same motion by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In accordance with Pantami, Buhari accepted and likewise directed these mandatory bodily protecting measures be put in place to safeguard telecommunications infrastructure deployed throughout the nation.
That pronouncement did not have any affect as vandalism of the infrastructure has remained a day by day prevalence throughout the nation to this point.
