Telecom
Curbing Vandalization, Theft of Telecom Equipment
Vandalization as an act before now was synonymous with the oil and gas sector of the country’s economy, where petroleum pipe lines are vandalized with the aim of siphoning petroleum products from the pipes.
This nefarious act has led to loss of human lives and material wealth over the years especially in recent years when the product has become goldmine. The growth of telecommunications in the country as witnessed in the spread of coverage by Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications saw this ‘bad word’ extending its tentacle to the sector that has been adjudged the fastest in terms of growth in Africa. It started as activities of areas boys who demanded for settlement from telecom operators before they could site their base stations in their areas and has today, grown to menacing proportions.
When last year, Nigeria witnessed its worst quality of service issue in GSM service delivery that led to Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) slamming blanket ban on MTN and Zain from running promo and directed that they pay compensation to their subscribers; the operators argued that they were not responsible for the poor quality of service attributing it to vandalization and theft of their equipment.
This argument was not acceptable; maybe NCC and National Assembly saw it as an afterthought as such issue was not raised before the hammer fell on them. But, today, the matter that was relegated to the background has turned out to be a subject for discussion by the industry stakeholders.
NCC few weeks ago organized Stakeholders’ Forum to tackle vandalization and theft of telecom infrastructure where it resolved to collaborate with security agencies to address the issue. Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman, NCC said at the forum that there was need for the commission to revisit the military decree that punished culprits of theft and vandalization of Nitel and government properties with long term imprisonment of 21 years.
This forum has been described by industry stakeholders as timely, when after one year of sanctions, operators are yet to deliver improved quality of service on their networks; and also proved that capacity is not the sole responsibility for poor quality of service.
Impact on operators
MTN Nigeria said it lost N125.2 million worth of equipment to theft and vandalization within 11 months of 2007. According to Mr. Karl Toriola, chief technical officer, MTN, 90 generating sets worth N44 million and 654,214 litres of diesel worth N65,421 million, were stolen within the period.
Others include 35 solenoid worth N2.7 million, 23 air conditioners worth N1.3 million, 47 batteries worth N2.1 million and 120 AVR put at N9.7 million. He added that vandalization of about 300 sites and sabotage of MTN’s transmission infrastructure led to significant downtime last year. These figures may have doubled going by increase activities of these vandals and thieves.
Toriola noted that repeated and multiple cuts to its fibre optic network disrupt service, defeat redundancy and self healing architecture of fibre rings as damage to one microwave tower will often affect several others in line of sight causing widespread transmission outages. "Increasing community agitation and militancy across the six geographical zones with greatest incidence in Lagos, Niger-Delta, South-East also affected our services," he said.
According to him, about 50 sites were rendered inaccessible per day on account of community issues. He added that increasing robbery and banditry hamper the ability to provide reactive maintenance within preferred best practice response times. Zain on the other hand lost 100 generators last year which has doubled as at last month when Mr. Bayo Ligali, chief executive officer of the company disclosed that GSM operators are losing at least two sets of generators to thieves on daily basis. Although Globacom has not disclosed the number of its generators and other equipments lost to vandalism and theft, it is believed that it could still be in the same range with its competitors as they are not operating in a different environment. However, these thieves overpower security guards guiding these base stations with sophisticated weapon to carry out their unscrupulous act.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that 3 GSM operators had a total of 11,900 base stations as at the end of July this year. A breakdown of which shows that MTN has 4,200, Glomobile 4,100 and Zain 3,600 with installed 23,800 generators. GSM operators are using generating sets because of the unreliable nature of Nigeria’s public power supply.
Mr. Ligali said that apart from countries where they have witnessed wars and other major conflicts, Nigeria ranks highest among countries that have recorded rampant vandalization of telecommunications equipment in the world.
Options
Nigeria cannot afford to allow few disgruntled elements destroy the growth recorded in an industry she seem to have gotten it right among others in the economy. Against this backdrop, something needs to be done fast to check this ugly trend capable of throwing us back to the dark ages of telecommunications.
Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton) suggested that the Federal Government should present a bill to the National Assembly, to advance a law that will stipulate stiffer penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for apprehended vandals of base stations and other infrastructure like optic fibre cables.
According to Adebayo, Alton was actually at the forefront of the plans to sponsor the bill at the National Assembly, even as he expressed optimism that having been a problem that affects all, the bill would not have much problem being passed into law.
He cited the scenario of the 80s when it was a serious offence punishable by a long stretch of prison sentence, to vandalize Nitel property and wondered why the same protection is not extended to today’s telecom operators who are largely private firms.
He said his association has over time, articulated and packaged submissions to the Federal Government by writing to relevant agencies, ministries and related authorities over what they have been going through in the hands of vandals and thieves who steal and damage facilities, and the need to be given some kind of protection to enable them focus on delivering better quality of service to the subscribers.
"We cannot fold our arms and watch things continue the way they are going," he said.
Adebayo cautioned that with the astronomical growth of telecom subscribers on the networks, government should at least provide those basic things to help the operators in providing quality and seamless services or risk having the networks collapse with inestimable drastic effects on the economy of the country.
Franchising option should be also looked into by operators to address this menace especially in rural areas, just as Zain’s Rural Acquisition Initiative (RAI). Franchising is a method of doing business where a franchisor licenses trademarks to a franchisee in exchange for a recurring payment – usually a percentage of gross profits as well as the annual fees.
Zain’s RAI is targeted at low income consumers in most rural and poorest parts of Nigeria. The telecom franchise programme initiative is designed to involve rural residents in base station management and distribution programme, creating jobs, wealth, and improved products and services availability in the process.
Franchisees selected for the programme are the drivers of the programme as local entrepreneurs and in turn recruit representatives from their locality to sell services and protect local base stations in their areas. They are given necessary technical, marketing, sales and financial support by Zain to help grow their businesses.
Fola Odufuwa, founder of eShekels limited, a pioneer ICT researcher in Sub-Saharan Africa, said franchising has ability to speedily start a new business based on a proven template. It also ensures expansion of operations more rapidly.
According to him, Nigerian entrepreneurs do not really need subsidies but a level playing field, access to capital and fair access to existing networks, adequate profit sharing structure and legal protection for their investments.
Business franchising involves the transfer of the total way of doing business that has been developed by a franchisor (big enterprise) to a franchisee (such as small and medium enterprise).
In the context of telecoms, it means that the service provider transfers to the small entrepreneur, the whole process including technical expertise, training systems, marketing, management methods and relevant information on provision of telecoms services to rural areas for an agreed fee or proportion of profit on the business.
Industry analysts say franchising can to an extent, assist in curbing theft and vandalization of telecomm equipment. For instance, if operators franchise their base stations, products and distribution outlets in a community to an indigene of such community, chances are that such franchisee will provide adequate security for those equipments knowing fully well that he or she has stakes in the business and if anything happens to the equipment, he stands to lose money. More so, his people will see such equipments as belonging to a local and not the major network operator and then be more willing to protect them.
MTN Nigeria has said that there are plans to deploy an artificial intelligence (AI) technology to monitor and protect its fibre optic cables across the country.
Yahaya Ibrahim, chief technical officer (CTO), MTN, said the technology will detect vibrations, identify the cause, and alert relevant personnels.
According to Ibrahim who spoke during a session for the ongoing MTN Media Innovation Progamme, the proposed innovation comes amid concerns over the growing spate of telecoms infrastructure vandalism, which have led to multiple cable cuts, and the destruction of towers.
This, he said, would enable the company to promptly deploy agents to the site.
The system is being developed in collaboration with Huawei Technologies.
Providing data on fibre cut incidents in an email correspondence, the CTO said MTN recorded over 9,000 cable cuts in 2024.
He said 4,700 cables were destroyed as at the end of June 2025 alone, bringing the total to about 13,700 incidents in 18 months.
A breakdown of the incidents by zone showed that about 2,500 cuts occurred in northern Nigeria, 2,800 in south-west, while 3,500 were recorded in the south-east and south-south regions combined.
“If we look at the cuts per region, the Southeastern and South South states have more cuts and this is where we have the most hotspots for Fibre and site vandalism,” Ibrahim said.
“Akwa Ibom, Abia and Rivers stand out in states. While in specific locations Omoku and Egbema stand out for fibre vandalization.”
The MTN official said vandalism and road construction account for 69 percent of total cable cuts across the country.
Ibrahim said the incidents often disrupt services, with an average downtime of 15 hours recorded per month.
“Some regions are higher than others,” he said.
“All services will be down, that means no one will be able to use any services.
“We spent N17.6b in 2024 and budget for 2025 based on PO issued for maintenance and relocation is N26.3b.”
In addition to the expenditure, MTN is said to also conduct route patrol, route monitoring, and construction bypass — which involves the creation an alternative route that allows for the temporary or permanent relocation of essential resources around a construction site.
Ibrahim said the telco also invests in having a diverse route for resilience, relocation of fibre, holding stakeholder engagement, and working with communities for policing.
The technical officer confirmed that there are collaborations in place with state and federal authorities to secure fibre routes.
National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) on Monday, 28th July 2025, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the implementation of “Nigeria First” Policy on Procurement, projects and other related matters.
The Nigeria First Policy is an initiative of the Federal Government, aimed at promoting Nigerian-made goods, services and utilization of Local content, infrastructures and other value chain.
As part of the Renewed Hope Agenda initiative of the Government, the policy seeks to encourage local production and consumption of Nigerian goods or services, also to support Nigerian business and entrepreneurs, foster economic growth and development, reduce dependency on imported goods and to promote Nigerian culture and identity. Also, by prioritizing local content, the policy aimed to create jobs, stimulate economic activity, and increase Nigeria’s global competitiveness.
Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony which took place at the Headquarters of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) office in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive of NASENI, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, said, with the signing of MoU and implementation of the Nigeria First Policy, 80% of challenges faced while trying to convince investors and foreign partners would have been solved, as Nigeria will cease to be dumping ground for foreign goods, while focusing on promotion of Nigerian products, goods and services.
Halilu said that with support now coming from BPP, the over 50 market ready NASENI products will be off the shelves and gain patronage of Nigerians, adding that NASENI has gained for the country over 2 billion dollars from its recent partnership activities with China alone.
“One thing that is clear when I took over the leadership of NASENI was the determination to move the Agency from just producing prototypes to commercialization of its technologies and products, this was complemented by the turn around which we did in rebranding the Agency.
“We have 50 market-ready Nigeria branded products. NASENI is building the biggest renewable energy park in Nasarawa and has entered into partnership with Abuja Technology Village to boost Technology Transfer and innovation, enhance local manufacturing capacity, transform NASENI’s research-focused installation into full production facilities, promote national brands and local production”, he further explained.
Buttressing the partnership between NASENI and BPP, he said that it is expected that the policy would have transformative impacts on Nigeria’s economy and human capital development, aligning with national goals for industrialization, youth employment, and economic diversification. “This also shows that our efforts are not in vain:”
Earlier in his speech, the Director-General of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) Dr. Adebowale Adedokun said that the MoU between BPP and NASENI offers a structured bridge between production and procurement and how to take locally made solutions off the shelves and to place them at the center of public service delivery, which aimed at aligning Government policies with national priorities as well as giving practical force to the Nigeria First Policy.
According to him, “NASENI’s innovations, from tractors to tablets, from surveillance drones to solar backup systems, will now be actively prioritized in the procurement plans by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. We are institutionalizing a framework that makes local options not just preferable, but the default option before all others.
Specifically, he said further that with the signing of the MoU, the “BPP will now integrate NASENI’s Product catalogue into the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal, NOCOPO, and therefore encouraging other MDAs to follow suit”
He noted that the “Nigeria First Policy is not an act of protectionism, but an act of patriotism grounded in performance, and it is targeted at fastracking Nigeria’s industrial revolution”. He remarked that “NASENI has invested in quality assurance. Its products are certified by national institutions such as SON and NAFDAC. This means NASENI’s offerings will now be visible, verifiable, and measurable across all MDAs. First, we are integrating NASENI’s catalogue into the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal, NOCOPO. Between January and June this year alone, NOCOPO’s enhanced price intelligence has helped Nigeria save over 173 billion naira, 155 million dollars, and 1.7 million euros.”
While calling on all MDAs to follow NASEN’s footprint in promoting Made in Nigeria products, he said that the BPP’s revised threshold is now five billion naira for goods and ten billion for works, meaning that MDAs can act faster, while they continue to strengthen post-review and audit mechanisms.
He emphasized that the role of BPP is to ensure that these standards are rewarded with access, and that MDAs no longer look outside when the best is being made inside. “For the avoidance of doubt, let me say here that we will be backing this commitment with reform actions”.
Telecom
Treepz Launches in Canada, Secures University of Toronto-Supported Program as First Corporate Travel Client
Treepz, Africa’s fast-growing corporate mobility technology company, has expanded its operations into Canada, marking a significant milestone in its global strategy. The announcement was made at Brampton City Hall, Ontario, with full support from the Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown.
The event, which featured key stakeholders and dignitaries, included the official announcement of Treepz’s partnership with the African Impact Initiative, a University of Toronto-sponsored program. Under the agreement, Treepz will provide comprehensive travel logistics—including flights, accommodation, experiences, and ground transportation—for program participants visiting four African countries: South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Rwanda.
Speaking at the launch, Mayor Brown described the expansion as “a proud moment for Brampton,” lauding Treepz’s founders for creating a brand that has served over six million customers since its inception in Nigeria in 2019. He added that Treepz’s ability to manage mobility in Lagos, one of Africa’s busiest cities, is a testament to the strength of its operational capacity.
Onyeka Akumah, Treepz Founder and CEO, expressed gratitude to city officials and program partners, noting that the move solidifies Treepz’s role as a globally recognized African brand.
“This launch is a strong statement of intent, not just for Treepz, but for all African startups. We are proud to be serving clients in both Africa and North America,” he said.
Treepz’s entry into Canada was supported by several Canadian organisations, including the World Trade Center’s TAP program, the Black Entrepreneurship Alliance, and the BHive Program.
It follows Treepz’s participation in the Techstars Toronto Accelerator in 2021, which played a pivotal role in its expansion roadmap.
The launch signals a new era for Treepz’s operations and marks a historic moment for African-led innovation in the global travel technology space.
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