Telecom
Investments in Telecom Hit $16Bn, Alton Warns of a Dive
Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton) has flaunted its contributions to the economy by reporting a princely $16 billion from foreign direct investment in the last ten years but warned of stunted growth if barriers to further investments are not removed, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now report. The Nigeria telecom sector, easily the growth engine of the country’s economy from 2001 to date is now beset by myriad of problems including; multiple regulation and taxation, illegal access denials, site shut-outs, shortage of long term investment capital in-country, inadequate power supply, unrealistic Opex and Capex levels for a developing country, lack of incentives to drive service penetration to the remote and rural areas, rent seeking charges for permits and approvals necessary for deployment and security. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Alton, said the bottlenecks are a scare-force to further investment in the sector. Alton, an industry body for all telecommunications companies and others providing subsidiary services to telecommunications service providers in the country is at the forefront of promoting growth in the telecommunications sector and, enhancing efficient and affordable telecommunications services delivery to users of these services. But Adebayo said gains in the IT and telecom sector “have come through the mobile telephony industry.” He adds that “80 per cent of the country has been covered by GSM-based mobile operators and CDMA based wireless operators.” The implication is that the sector’s contribution to the overall national GDP growth now put at over 7 per cent has being significant. While investments stand at $16 billion at the end of 2010, the telecom sector’s contribution to the national GDP stood at 3.5 per cent, and is expected to grow to circa 5 per cent in 2015. “Investment in telecom generates a growth dividend, because the spread of telecommunications reduces cost of interaction, expands market boundaries, and enormously expands information flows. Hence, the development of telecommunications makes for the delivery of societal services which enhance education, health and agriculture,” said Adebayo. The Alton chairman noted that for Nigeria to remain competitive, “it must continue to strategize and issue policies, laws and regulatory instruments that will ensure the continued growth of the sector.” He warned however that Nigeria cannot attain global economic power status unless IT application is emphasized as a “driver of development.” Recognising IT as a critical social overhead capital, with an accompanying policy change that would herald a transformative agenda are essential in bringing about the much needed next phase development to the country, he stated. Among necessary changes needed to drive growth and further penetration in the sector, Adebayo, stated Nigeria should urgently look at its taxation policy as it affects critical investment in telecom and ICT in general. While the majority of telephone subscribers would want the regulatory authority to bring down the axe on the mobile operators for the general poor quality of service (QoS), not so for Adebayo’s Alton. He exonerated the mobile operators, but rather blamed government policies that stifle further investments in the sector that would drive growth and better quality. He noted that investment in critical infrastructure have stalled in recent years as a result of the governments’ multiple regulation and taxation regimes. “We note that there are currently about 20,000 base station sites in Nigeria serving a population of over 150 million people,” said Adebayo. In country evaluation, he contrasts that the United Kingdom with a total population of 60 million is served by 53, 300 base stations. “For Nigerian networks to provide best in class services compared to the UK, Europe and other countries, it is expected that the industry will need to roll out additional base station sites in excess of 50,000 nationwide,” said Adebayo. Several government agencies like the Nigerian Environmental Standards Regulatory Enforcement Agency, (NESREA) have sought to impose standards on mobile operators that are significantly different from prescribed NCC guidelines over tower and mast installations. Of recent, states and local governments have joined the fray in exacting influence over the telecom infrastructure investment by imposing regulatory fees to shore up their internally generated revenue (IGR) base. Recent studies indicate that companies and industries with expansive usage of “ICT grow faster, more productive and more profitable” than others who depend less on IT application.
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled its Q4 2025 Network Performance Reports, showcasing nationwide quality boosts fueled by over $1 billion in industry investments and sharper regulatory focus.
NCC
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, NCC, hailed the Ookla-backed data as proof of NCC’s drive for transparent, evidence-driven oversight of Nigeria’s digital growth.
The reports track real-user experiences across cities, villages, highways, and nascent 5G areas, revealing faster median download speeds in both urban and rural spots versus Q3 2025.
Video streaming quality gaps between city and countryside have shrunk, thanks to a beefed-up 4G network—yet 5G rollout lags, upload speeds falter, and coverage holes linger in spots.
Maida said NCC is leaning on operators to fix these via spectrum tweaks, infrastructure drives, and stricter service rules, with 2025’s 2,850 new sites already paying off in broader reach and capacity.
Operators pledge even bigger spends in 2026 to keep the momentum, aiming for top-tier connectivity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“We’ll turn these insights into real gains in service and access,” Maida affirmed, calling for sustained industry teamwork.
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