MTN Nigeria has suffered more than 5,400 fibre optic cable cuts between January and July 2025, with road construction and vandalism emerging as the biggest threats to its infrastructure. The company recorded 760 fibre cuts in July alone, bringing the seven-month total to 5,478 and causing widespread network disruptions. June saw the worst impact, with 1,016 incidents, the highest in the period.
One of the most severe cases of vandalism, scheduled for repair on August 24, knocked out services at 101 sites across 15 local government areas in Kano, Adamawa, and Borno States.
“This is just one of the many ripple effects of vandalism, forcing us to rebuild, reroute, and restore infrastructure to maintain a stable and reliable network,” MTN said in a newsletter on Saturday. The operator also apologised to customers affected by the outages.
While vandalism continues to rise, road construction remains the biggest contributor, accounting for over 60% of all fibre cuts. Many states are expanding road networks to address infrastructure deficits, often damaging buried cables.
Niger State is constructing more than 556 km of new roads under Governor Umaru Bago, with plans to deliver over 2,000 km in four years at a cost exceeding ₦1.2 trillion.
“There is nothing we can do about it, because our governor has embarked on these massive road construction projects,” said Suleiman Isah, Niger State’s commissioner for Communications Technology and Digital Economy. “Rather than digging the ground to lay fibre, we are providing our power lines for operators to use aerial technology.”
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has also raised an alarm over the scale of damage. Its Executive Vice Chairman, Aminu Maida, disclosed on August 15, 2025, that the industry records an average of 1,100 fibre cuts weekly. He stressed that while the country has officially gazetted Critical National Infrastructure (CNII) protections, the Commission prioritises collaboration and awareness over punishment.
“The NCC views enforcement as a measure of last resort—one to be deployed only when all engagement and mediation avenues have been exhausted,” Maida said. “And when we do enforce, it is with the backing and cooperation of relevant security, legal, and oversight institutions. Our goal is not to penalise, but to preserve the integrity and continuity of national communications systems.”
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