State governments have been urged to slash and harmonize Right of Way (RoW) and site permit charges to bridge Nigeria’s digital infrastructure gap and unlock massive regional investments.
The call was a central resolution emerging from the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Investment Forum 2026, convened by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in partnership with Swedfund and Ookla in Abuja.
Industry stakeholders at the two-day forum highlighted that fragmented state-level policies, high RoW fees, and protracted permitting timelines remain major barriers to deploying vital fiber-optic cables and expanding network capacity.
According to data presented at the forum, state-level reforms are already yielding measurable results. A pilot of the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index across twelve states revealed that reductions in RoW fees directly translated to a 22% to 95% spike in fiber deployment.
Highlighting positive policy shifts, the NCC noted that twelve states have successfully brought their RoW charges down to zero, an increase from just seven states in December 2024.
The push for standardized and reduced charges comes as national data consumption surges.
The NCC reported that Nigeria consumed approximately 1.6 million terabytes of data in July 2026 alone, marking a nearly 47% increase over twelve months.
With active subscriptions projected to climb from 195 million toward 350 million over the next decade, experts warned that uncoordinated subnational levies could stifle infrastructure scale-up.
As part of the roadmap moving forward, participants recommended that all state governments adopt a unified model where operators laying fiber are responsible for road reinstatement under shortened permitting timelines.
The NCC reaffirmed its commitment to sustaining ongoing state-level engagement to ensure that regulatory friction is minimized, paving the way for a more robust and digitally connected economy.