By: Sam Akindole
NIGERIA’S economy is increasingly being conducted through infrastructure that most Nigerians rarely see. Behind the bank transfer, the Point-of-Sale transaction, the online class, the video consultation, the delivery order, the small business operating from a phone and the daily calls between families and businesses is a network of telecommunications infrastructure. The scale of activity moving through those networks is becoming harder to separate from the performance of the wider economy. Data traffic is rising, digital payments are expanding, businesses are relying more heavily on connectivity, while government and regulators are increasingly treating telecom infrastructure as critical economic infrastructure. The growth of electronic payments provides one indication of the change. Data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) showed that the value of Point-of-Sale transactions rose to N18.78 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, up 79.03 per cent from N10.49 trillion in the corresponding period of 2025. The figures are not simply about payments. They reflect the growing dependence of traders, transport operators, service providers, consumers and small businesses on electronic connectivity to complete everyday transactions.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to require dual connectivity for PoS terminals also points to the importance of the underlying network. The policy requires PoS operators to maintain active connections to both NIBSS and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL), reducing dependence on a single transaction channel and improving resilience. Economist Bismarck Rewane has described the telecommunications revolution as one of the most significant transformations of Nigeria’s economy in the past 25 years, arguing that telecommunications companies have evolved into critical economic infrastructure and helped drive the expansion of banking, financial services, PoS transactions, mobile money and fintech. The scale of the telecommunications industry itself illustrates how deeply this infrastructure has become embedded in economic activity. MTN Nigeria reported 92.2 million subscribers and 55.7 million active data users at the end of June 2026.
Its network data traffic increased by 25.8 per cent year-on-year, while average data usage reached 14.8GB per user. Those numbers are significant not simply because they describe the scale of one operator, but because they show the increasing volume of economic and social activity being carried over mobile networks. For MTN, the investment required to support that demand has also grown. The company reported capital expenditure, excluding leases, of N620.5 billion in the first half of 2026, equivalent to a capex intensity of 20.7 per cent.
MTN Chief Financial Officer Modupe Kadri has described the network as the company’s “factory”, reflecting the central role of infrastructure in its ability to provide services at scale. A presentation attributed to Kadri also put MTN Nigeria’s fibre deployment at more than 43,000 kilometres and highlighted the company’s extensive distribution and trade network across the country. But the expansion of infrastructure has also exposed a growing national vulnerability: the economy now depends on networks that can be disrupted by damage to the infrastructure carrying them. The Nigerian Communications Commission reported more than 5,000 fibre-cut incidents in the first six months of 2026, caused largely by road construction, excavation and other civil works. NCC Executive Vice Chairman Aminu Maida described telecommunications infrastructure as a critical national lifeline supporting banking, government services, education, healthcare, commerce, security and emergency communications. Telecom infrastructure has also been designated Critical National Information Infrastructure. The response has therefore moved beyond the telecommunications industry. A standing committee involving the Federal Ministry of Works, the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and other stakeholders has been established around the protection of fibre infrastructure, with the Office of the National Security Adviser involved because of the wider security implications.
The issue is not unique to MTN. It affects every operator and every sector that depends on connectivity. Infrastructure providers have consequently been calling for greater coordination and sharing of infrastructure to reduce duplication and improve the economics of broadband expansion. Oluseyi Lala, Business Divisional Chief Executive Officer of ipNX, has argued that broadband deployment is capital-intensive and requires greater collaboration between industry players, including through infrastructure sharing. The infrastructure story also extends beyond commercial telecommunications. MTN Foundation, the social investment arm established in 2004, says it has invested more than N34.4 billion in projects across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, covering 1,093 project sites and 3,610 communities, with more than 32.2 million people reached. Its programmes span health, education, economic empowerment and capacity building. In healthcare, its Y’ello Doctor programme currently operates six mobile clinics serving communities in Anambra, Gombe, Kano, Kwara, Lagos and Rivers. The programme provides primary healthcare services including consultation, treatment, screening, diagnosis and referral. MTN Foundation says about 710,000 people have benefited since the programme began in 2014. The Foundation has also expanded its health intervention through partnerships. In September 2026, MTN Group and the Gates Foundation announced the Maternal Health Multiplier, a digital health initiative designed to help 500,000 women access maternal-health guidance, equip 5,000 frontline health workers with tools for earlier identification of complications and support 500 health facilities by 2030.
Education represents another part of the same wider investment. MTN Foundation says its scholarship programme has invested more than N3.3 billion and awarded 15,764 scholarships to 5,741 students. For the 2026 cycle, the Foundation expanded opportunities to 500, including additional places for medical students.
Its wider capacity-building programmes include ICT and business-skills training, while Foundation monitoring data lists more than 15,000 youths trained and investments in ICT and science laboratories in public schools. Economic empowerment has also become part of the intervention. Through Y’ellopreneur, the Foundation says 5,339 female entrepreneurs have been trained across the 36 states and the FCT, while 122 beneficiaries have received equipment loans valued at N304 million. The third phase, being implemented with the Bank of Industry, involves a N1 billion matching fund, training for 1,000 female entrepreneurs and equipment financing for up to 200 participants. Taken together, these investments point to a broader transition in Nigeria’s economic structure. Connectivity is no longer confined to voice calls and internet access. It is increasingly part of how money moves, how businesses reach customers, how workers operate, how students learn, how healthcare programmes reach communities and how public services are delivered.
That dependence also changes the meaning of network investment. The value of infrastructure is not measured only by the number of towers, kilometres of fibre or subscribers connected. It is also reflected in what remains possible when the network is available—and what is disrupted when it is not.
For businesses, an outage can interrupt payments, customer communication, cloud services, logistics and online sales. For financial institutions, network instability can affect digital transactions. For healthcare providers, connectivity can support communication, information access and emerging digital-health services. For government, it increasingly supports public administration and citizen-facing services. This is why the protection of telecom infrastructure has moved into the public-interest space. As dependence increases, fibre cuts, vandalism, inadequate rights of way, power constraints and other infrastructure risks become economic issues rather than narrow industry problems. The trajectory is clear. Nigeria has moved from a country where telecommunications primarily connected people to one where networks increasingly connect economic activity itself.
MTN’s scale and investment provide one of the clearest examples of that transition, but the larger story is national. Banks, PoS operators, traders, SMEs, schools, hospitals, logistics companies, government agencies and millions of individuals now operate through digital networks. The network has therefore become part of the country’s economic infrastructure. The challenge ahead is no longer simply to expand connectivity, but to make that infrastructure deeper, more accessible, better protected and resilient enough to support an economy that increasingly runs through it.
•Akindole writes in from Lagos.
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