The proposed investment forms the largest outstanding portion of the estimated $2bn capital requirement for Project BRIDGE, the government’s ambitious plan to expand Nigeria’s fibre infrastructure from about 35,000km currently to roughly 125,000km.
Official records from the government and international development finance institutions reviewed by BrandIconImage indicate that $800m of the estimated project cost has already been secured through sovereign financing commitments.
The funding comprises a $500m World Bank facility approved in October 2025, a $100m loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved in February 2026 and a $200m African Development Bank loan approved in April 2026.
The Federal Government is therefore looking to mobilise approximately $1.2bn in additional capital to complete the wider $2bn financing envelope envisaged for the project.
The private-sector funding, however, is not a condition that must be satisfied before the project can commence. Rather, it represents the remaining portion of the overall capital requirement and is expected to be mobilised through the public-private partnership structure established for Project BRIDGE.
Strategic Communications Adviser to the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Osibo Imhoitsike, said the project had attracted significant backing from international development finance institutions, while efforts to bring private investors into the structure were at an advanced stage.
He confirmed that the sovereign financing secured so far comprised $500m from the World Bank, $200m from the African Development Bank and $100m from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The European Union has also provided a €22m grant in support of Project BRIDGE.
“The government has received a significant private sector investment offer as part of the PPP structure, and that process is currently being concluded,” Imhoitsike said.
The government’s move to bring private capital into the project is central to its plan to accelerate construction while limiting the amount of public funding required for the nationwide infrastructure.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, confirmed in August that physical deployment was expected to begin in October.
The October target followed the incorporation of Bridge Open Access, or Bridge OA, in August as the special-purpose vehicle established to implement and operate the network.
Telecom consultant Ejike Onyeaso said the incorporation of the company marked an important step towards physical implementation of the project.
“The establishment of the company signalled that the project was moving into its implementation phase, with the industry now expecting the October rollout,” Onyeaso said.
He said the network could have a significant impact on the cost and availability of fibre connectivity, particularly outside major urban centres.
“The industry is really looking forward to that because it will help reduce costs for not just mobile network operators but also internet service providers that rely on fibre, particularly in the hinterlands and underserved areas.”
The Federal Government formally began its private-sector engagement for the project in March 2025, when the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy opened an investor consultation process.
Private-sector companies were invited to express interest in participating in the special-purpose vehicle that would oversee the network’s rollout under a public-private partnership arrangement.
Tijani subsequently confirmed in April 2026 that the government was working to mobilise private capital to close the project’s remaining financing gap.
“We’re now mobilising the private sector to plug the remaining gap,” he said, after noting that more than $800m had been raised from the government and the World Bank for the initiative.
Under the plan, the national fibre network is expected to increase Nigeria’s backbone infrastructure from approximately 35,000km to about 125,000km, significantly expanding the reach of high-capacity connectivity across the country.
The World Bank has said the programme is intended to help address Nigeria’s digital divide by expanding access to affordable, high-speed broadband in communities that remain unserved or underserved.
“The BRIDGE project puts into action the bold and ambitious vision to unlock the potential of the digital economy in Nigeria, working alongside the private sector,” World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mathew Verghis, said.
“Access to fast and reliable internet will help to create more quality jobs for millions of Nigerians across all 774 LGAs in addition to improving the quality of essential services like education and healthcare.”
The proposed ownership structure gives private investors a majority stake in Bridge OA, with their equity participation expected to range from 51 per cent to 75 per cent. Investors will also have operational control of the company.
The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, is expected to retain between 25 per cent and 49 per cent.
The structure is designed to combine public financing with private capital and technical expertise, while allowing the government to maintain a minority stake in the infrastructure company.
Bridge OA is expected to finance, construct and operate the fibre network as a wholesale, open-access infrastructure provider.
Rather than selling internet services directly to consumers, the company will provide fibre capacity to qualified users on equal and non-discriminatory terms.
Potential users of the infrastructure will include telecommunications operators, internet service providers, banks, cloud service providers and other businesses that require high-capacity fibre connectivity.
The open-access model is intended to allow multiple operators to use the same underlying infrastructure, potentially reducing duplication of fibre networks and lowering the cost of extending broadband services to areas where private operators may otherwise find large-scale deployment commercially difficult.
The project has experienced delays from its earlier implementation timetable. The rollout had initially been targeted for the fourth quarter of 2025 or the first quarter of 2026.
Large-scale construction was subsequently deferred as the government worked on establishing the special-purpose vehicle, securing private-sector participation and completing procurement and other implementation arrangements.
Project BRIDGE was initially expected to be delivered over approximately five years, with about 30,000km of fibre targeted for construction during the first year before deployment accelerated as additional private capital and construction capacity became available.
Tijani has since revised the overall implementation timeline to three years, bringing forward the expected completion of the planned 90,000km network.
With Bridge OA now incorporated and private-sector financing negotiations nearing completion, the October deployment target represents the next major milestone for the government’s plan to expand Nigeria’s digital infrastructure.
The success of the rollout will depend not only on securing the remaining capital but also on the ability of Bridge OA and its private-sector partners to execute construction across difficult terrain and underserved communities while ensuring that the resulting infrastructure remains accessible to competing operators.