Nigeria lands $126m European backing for national fibre project

Nigeria has secured its first major investments from European partners for its national fibre-optic rollout, Project BRIDGE, a key financing for the country’s plan to expand high-speed connectivity across all 774 local government areas. 

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, announced the development on Wednesday, February 25, after concluding a two-week investment tour across six European countries.

In a statement on X, Tijani said the Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a $100 million investment in Project BRIDGE, one of the lender’s largest commitments to Nigeria’s digital infrastructure sector. 

The approval adds to the $500 million already secured from the World Bank. 

The fresh backing sends a strong signal that major development partners consider Nigeria’s fibre expansion commercially viable and strategically important.

Tijani also disclosed that the European Union has signed a €45 million Digital Economy Package for Nigeria. Of this, €22 million (approximately $26 million) is a grant for Project BRIDGE, while €18 million is earmarked to improve digital public services, and €5 million will support the government’s 3 Million Technical Talent Programme (3MTT) digital talent programme.

“These approvals are deeply reassuring as we reflect on the hard work and air miles, across six countries in two weeks, to secure the partnerships required to deploy 90,000km of fibre across Nigeria,” he said.

Project BRIDGE aims to expand Nigeria’s fibre backbone from the current 35,000 kilometres to 125,000 kilometres, enabling nationwide high-speed connectivity and improving the country’s capacity for digital services, remote work, and AI-ready infrastructure.

The World Bank’s financing agreement, signed on December 30, 2025, is structured under a “pay-for-results” model, meaning funds will only be released when specific milestones are achieved. 

The first tranche of $6 million is expected in 2026 for the setup of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to manage the project. A second tranche of $155 million will follow in 2027 once the SPV becomes fully operational and the first 5,000 kilometres of fibre are completed to technical standards. Subsequent disbursements will be tied to reaching 25,000-kilometre and 65,000-kilometre deployment benchmarks.

Early technical groundwork is already in progress. On February 17, the Ministry awarded a ₦451.9 million ($335,000) supply-chain advisory contract to a consortium led by Bluechip Technologies Limited, a Nigerian information technology and consulting company, to design the first 40,000 kilometres of fibre routes.