The Federal Government yesterday called on private-sector players to partner with it to close Nigeria’s last-mile broadband gap, saying that massive public investment in digital infrastructure must now be matched by device affordability, service innovation, and targeted connectivity for critical institutions.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, made the call while speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the Flagship Nigeria: Electrification + Connectivity Convening held in Abuja.

Tijani said Nigeria was currently leading Africa in deep digital infrastructure investments, stressing that improved access to quality internet would become visible over the next year as projects begin to come on stream.

“As a government, we’re very aware of our responsibility and the need to deepen access,” he said. “There is no country in Africa today that is investing in deepening its digital infrastructure as deeply as Nigeria is doing.”

According to him, Nigeria is the only African country investing in a 90,000-kilometre fibre-optic network project led by the World Bank, while also committing resources to two new communications satellites.

He added, “We’re the only country in Africa that is currently doing that, but also investing in two communication satellites. The only country that is also investing in an additional 3,700 towers for rural areas, which means we can now bring online about 20 million Nigerians that are currently unconnected at all.”

The minister recalled that when the present administration assumed office, the telecommunications sector was under strain.

He said the decision to allow a modest tariff increase had restored profitability and unlocked fresh capital inflows.

“When the telecommunication sector was struggling when we came in, we allowed for tariffs to go up a bit, which means they are now profitable. And on their own, we’ve seen that they’ve invested over $1bn into our economy as well,” he stated.

Tijani noted that infrastructure quality directly determines service quality, arguing that years of underinvestment had constrained broadband expansion.

“In the next couple of years or months, you will start to see improved access because the quality of access is dependent on the quality and investment in infrastructure, which, as a country, we’ve not done in many years in digital infrastructure. You’re about to see that change. In about a year, you start to see great changes because these infrastructures will start to come alive,” he said.

Beyond infrastructure, the minister emphasised that connectivity without skills would limit impact.

He said the ministry had separated digital skills for technology professionals from basic digital literacy for everyday users. He referenced the ongoing Three Million Technical Talent programme, which aims to train three million young Nigerians in advanced digital skills.

“This is a project that we started in 2023 that has trained over 150,000 people already. But we’re not stopping there,” he added.

For ordinary Nigerians, including traders and market women, Tijani said the government was preparing to launch a nationwide digital literacy programme delivered via mobile phones and local languages.

He disclosed that the initiative would leverage a government-backed large language model designed to understand and communicate in Nigerian languages.

On questions linking digital infrastructure to electronic transmission of election results, the minister declined to comment directly on electoral matters, insisting that his mandate was infrastructure development.

“Our role as a ministry, I will not speak to the elections, but my role is to deepen digital infrastructure. And we’ve been very clear about the fact that this is what the President has asked us to do,” he said.

He stressed that all ongoing projects had presidential backing and were aligned with the administration’s ambition to grow the economy to $1tn.

Every one of our digital infrastructure projects is a project that the President has approved. The President has a thorough understanding of the role of the digital economy in driving this agenda of the $1tn economy. And without our investment, the President knows that we can’t get there,” Tijani stated.

Speaking on the purpose of the convening, Tijani said that even with expanded fibre and satellite capacity, affordability and institutional connectivity remained major hurdles.

“If the internet is now ubiquitous and affordable, can every Nigerian also afford the right mobile phones, tablets, or laptops that they need to enjoy the internet? It’s not something you enjoy without those things,” he said.

He said bridging the last mile would require collaboration with private-sector players to connect schools, hospitals, security agencies, and other public institutions.

“How do we ensure that when we invest in the infrastructure, it gets into schools, not only universities, but also secondary schools across the country? That’s the last mile work that we need the private sector to do,” he noted.

He added that internet service providers must also design tailored packages for critical sectors.

“How do we ensure that we can support ISPs to make sure they have the right bundles and packages for hospitals, for police stations? These are things that we have to work with the private sector to achieve,” he said.

On the planned satellites, Tijani said Nigeria had been a regional pioneer since it first procured a communications satellite under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, noting that no other West African country currently operates one.

However, he acknowledged that the existing satellite had aged and required replacement.

“Our satellite is now old, and we need to procure new ones. President Bola Tinubu has approved that we should procure new ones. Satellite is one of the ways in which you can connect difficult-to-reach locations and rural areas. Also, the security agencies use our communications satellite deeply as well. So if we don’t have modern ones that can support all these efforts, it weakens our digital economy,” Tijani explained.

Providing timelines, the minister said the deployment of the fibre project was targeted for the second or third quarter of the year, while the new satellite was expected to become operational next year.

“We’re always very clear through our strategic blueprints that a fibre project, for instance, will get to the point where we’re deploying either by Q2 to Q3 this year, which is what we’re still working towards. That project is moving forward. We’ve been able to secure the bulk part of the funding,” he said.

“The satellite in itself, we expect, should come alive. We’ve now been able to select the companies that will provide it. We expect that it should be coming alive sometime next year.”

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa, Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, said the convening aligns with Africa’s broader ambition to connect one billion people to the internet by 2030.

He commended Nigeria for what he described as a clear policy direction and significant investments in connectivity infrastructure, digital devices and skills development.

However, he warned that electricity remains a fundamental gap in the continent’s push for meaningful digital inclusion.

Guimba-Saidou explained that the organisation’s Mission 300 initiative is designed to expand electricity access in underserved and remote communities, enabling schools, health centres, markets and households to take full advantage of digital services.

“This is about making connectivity relevant to the people who need it the most, not just those in major cities,” he said, urging deeper collaboration between government and private sector players to narrow the digital divide in a faster and more sustainable manner.

In his remarks, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mathew Verghis, noted that while Nigeria faces some of the most significant electricity access and backbone infrastructure shortfalls globally, it also possesses vast growth prospects anchored on its large and youthful population.

He stressed that digital inclusion rests on three interdependent pillars: reliable electricity, broadband infrastructure and affordable devices.

According to him, progress in one area without the others would limit impact.

He called for better coordination in the planning, construction and financing of power and fibre networks, arguing that integrated investment would lower costs and accelerate universal access.

Verghis added that the World Bank remains prepared to work with federal and state governments, alongside private sector stakeholders, to translate the vision of combined power and broadband expansion into tangible benefits for millions of Nigerians.