Over 5,000 fibre cuts in H1 2026 as road works disrupt telecoms — NCC
Nigerian Communications Commission NCC
Abdullateef Fowewe
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reported more than 5,000 fibre-optic cable cuts in the first half of 2026, with road construction, excavation and other civil works identified as the main causes.
Dailyeconomy seen this in a statement made available on Wednesday by NCC.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ workshop on the protection of fibre-optic cables held on August 11, 2026 at the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja, NCC Executive Vice Chairman Dr Aminu Maida called for stronger coordination between construction firms, government agencies and telecom operators to safeguard critical digital infrastructure.
“Our central message is simple: Nigeria must build the roads that connect our communities while protecting the fibre networks that connect our economy. We need both forms of infrastructure, and we need them to work together,” Maida said.
He warned that damage to fibre infrastructure could disrupt essential services and impose significant costs on citizens and the wider economy.
“To a machine operator on a construction site, it may appear to be one buried cable. To the nation, it can mean failed calls, stalled payments, interrupted services and missed opportunities,” he added.
The NCC chief noted that communications infrastructure now underpins banking, government services, education, healthcare, commerce, security and emergency communications. He recalled a February 2024 incident in which fibre cuts, including those linked to road construction, caused an almost network-wide outage for one major operator, affecting millions of users for several hours and putting pressure on other networks.
Industry data presented in recent months show road construction alone accounts for a large share of telecom outages, with experts pushing for a “dig-once” policy to reduce repeated excavation and cable damage.
To address the challenge, Maida disclosed that the Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy had inaugurated the Standing Committee on the Protection of Fibre Optic Cables to develop practical coordination mechanisms before, during, and after road works.
He said the committee’s membership had recently been expanded to include representatives of the Office of the National Security Adviser, recognising the security implications of protecting telecoms infrastructure, which has been designated as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII).
This designation, he explained, means telecoms infrastructure must be treated as national infrastructure and protected accordingly, with appropriate legal, regulatory and remedial consequences for damage.
The workshop, jointly organised by the two ministries, ONSA, NCC and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), is expected to culminate in a framework for protecting fibre-optic infrastructure during road construction and other excavation activities.
