Nigeria has secured the first major investments from European partners for the national fibre-optic rollout, Project BRIDGE, designed to expand high-speed connectivity nationwide.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, made this disclosure on Wednesday on his return from a two-week investment tour across six European countries.
Tijani, in a statement shared on X platform, indicated the Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved a $100 million investment in Project BRIDGE, representing one of biggest funding commitments to the nation’s digital infrastructure sector.
The minister also disclosed that the European Union (EU) had signed a €45 million Digital Economy Package for Nigeria.
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According to him, out of this facility, €22 million (approximately $26 million) is a grant for Project BRIDGE, €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.
He stated: “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.”
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 for $200 million support, signed on December 30, 2025, is structured under a “pay-for-results” model, which implies that funds will only be released when set targets have been met.
The first tranche of $6 million is expected to be disbursed this year for the setup of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to manage the project while the 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.
Based on the terms of the pact, subsequent disbursements will be tied to reaching 25,000-kilometre and 65,000-kilometre deployment benchmarks.
Already, the ministry has flagged off the early technical groundwork of the project on February 17, with the award of N451.9 million (about $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-optics routes.
