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Nigeria’s Federal Government has incorporated Bridge Open Access (Bridge OA), a new independent company created to oversee the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic infrastructure under the government’s flagship Project Bridge initiative.
The incorporation marks a significant step in the long-running programme, moving it from the planning and fundraising stage towards implementation and investor participation.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, announced the development, describing Bridge OA as the institutional platform needed to complete strategic investor onboarding and accelerate nationwide fibre deployment.
The government says the initiative is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s position as a major digital connectivity hub in West Africa.
Project Bridge Targets 120,000km National Backbone
Project Bridge, formally known as Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth, is being developed as a public-private partnership (PPP).
Under the investment framework published by the Federal Government in April 2026, the government is expected to retain between 25% and 49% ownership of the project vehicle, while private investors will hold at least 51%.
The project seeks to expand Nigeria’s existing national fibre backbone from approximately 30,000 kilometres to about 120,000 kilometres.
Its coverage is expected to extend across all 774 local government areas, connecting schools, healthcare facilities, agro-industrial zones and rural communities.
The infrastructure will also include international fibre links connecting Nigeria with neighbouring Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad, potentially strengthening regional digital connectivity and cross-border data traffic.
A Project Years in the Making
Although incorporation has only now provided the project with a formal corporate structure, Project Bridge has been under development for several years.
The Federal Government first announced plans for a 90,000-kilometre fibre network in 2024, with the initial project estimated at about $2 billion.
In January 2025, the World Bank committed $500 million towards the planned expansion, while the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other development finance institutions subsequently indicated financial support for the programme.
The absence of a formally incorporated project company, however, had remained a structural gap.
Bridge OA now provides a legal entity through which investors can participate, contracts can be executed and financing arrangements can be structured.
For the government, the incorporation also gives lenders, investors and auditors a defined corporate counterparty for a project that has previously existed largely as an investment and infrastructure proposal.
More Fibre Does Not Automatically Mean More Connections
Despite the scale of the proposed deployment, the bigger challenge may come after the fibre is installed.
Nigeria already has tens of thousands of kilometres of backbone fibre, but this has not translated into widespread fixed broadband connectivity.
Fibre-to-the-home connections remain relatively low compared with the country’s population, while overall broadband adoption has been driven largely by mobile internet services.
The distinction is important because backbone infrastructure primarily transports data between cities and major network locations. It does not automatically connect individual homes, businesses, schools or health facilities.
The final stretch between a backbone network and an end user remains one of the most expensive and difficult parts of broadband deployment.
Fibre Cuts and Right-of-Way Costs Remain Obstacles
Telecommunications operators continue to contend with frequent fibre cuts, infrastructure damage, theft and difficulties securing access to construction corridors.
Road construction and other infrastructure projects have repeatedly damaged fibre installations, while varying right-of-way charges across states have added to deployment costs.
The Federal Government has been working with stakeholders to reduce fibre damage and improve the protection of telecommunications infrastructure, including the designation of telecoms infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure.
However, infrastructure protection and consistent access to rights of way remain critical to determining how quickly new fibre can translate into usable connectivity.
Why the Open-Access Model Matters
Bridge OA is expected to operate primarily as a wholesale infrastructure provider, rather than compete directly with internet service providers for retail customers.
The open-access model is designed to allow multiple operators to purchase network capacity on equal terms.
This could reduce the burden on individual telecom and internet service providers that would otherwise have to finance their own long-distance fibre networks before expanding into underserved cities and communities.
If successful, the model could make it commercially easier for operators to extend broadband services into areas that have traditionally been considered too expensive or difficult to serve.
It could also encourage greater competition among service providers because companies would have access to shared national infrastructure instead of having to duplicate expensive backbone networks.
The Real Test Begins After Deployment
The incorporation of Bridge OA is an important institutional milestone, but the success of Project Bridge will ultimately be measured by more than the number of kilometres of fibre installed.
Nigeria’s immediate challenge is converting infrastructure into actual connections.
That means ensuring the fibre is properly maintained, protected from damage, commercially accessible to operators and extended beyond major cities into homes, businesses, schools and public institutions.
The government therefore faces a second and potentially more difficult task: ensuring that the network is not only built but actively used.
For Project Bridge, the real measure of success will not be whether Nigeria adds another 90,000 kilometres of fibre, but whether that infrastructure helps millions more Nigerians gain reliable, affordable access to the digital economy.
