The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in partnership with Swedfund and Ookla, convened the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Investment Forum, 2026 at the Onomo Allure Hotel, Abuja, on September 29-30, 2026, under the theme “Unlocking Infrastructure Investment through Data, Transparency and Partnerships”.
The two day program addressed Data, Demand and Infrastructure Investment Opportunities, Financing, Partnerships and Action Pathways, and closed with Investment Partnership and Investor Access.
The Forum was attended by the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; representative of the Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy; the Ambassador of Sweden to Nigeria; heads of Federal agencies; development finance institutions, investment banks and institutional investors; mobile network operators, tower and fibre infrastructure companies, satellite and fixed wireless providers; original equipment manufacturers; industry associations; and Management and staff of the Commission.
Participants benefited from important perspectives from leading figures in Nigeria’s investment and financial sectors. Mr. Bolaji Balogun, Chief Executive Officer of Chapel Hill Denham, provided an investor perspective on “Financing Digital Infrastructure,” emphasising the importance of investable projects, appropriate financing structures, capital-market participation and conditions that can attract long-term private and institutional capital.
While on the second day, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, Chairman of the Board of FCMB and Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company, provided insights on the broader economic and financial environment for infrastructure investment, highlighting the importance of cost and availability of capital, investor confidence, policy predictability and the role of digital infrastructure in supporting productivity and economic growth.
The Forum was convened to set out national digital infrastructure and investment priorities, present Nigeria’s connectivity and market data, including the Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index, as a basis for transparent planning, examine what makes digital infrastructure bankable, showcase new models that reduce cost or extend reach, and convene investors,regulators,policymakers and operators to agree to concrete opportunities.
As regards to the roundtable,
Participants resolved and recommended that The Federal Government should accelerate the delivery of Project BRIDGE, the 90,000 km national fibre backbone, as a strategic response to the middle-mile connectivity gap; advance complementary measures to improve the availability and reliability of power for digital infrastructure; sustain policy consistency; and support financing structures that reduce the cost of capital for the sector.
The Nigerian Communications Commission should sustain the reforms already improving investment conditions, including the tariff realignment, the designation of critical national information infrastructure and Right of Way engagement with States; publish the first national Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index report; advance open-access and wholesale regulation; and finalise the direct-to-device framework.
State Governments should cut and harmonise Right of Way and site permit charges, adopt the Federal model under which the operator that lays fibre reinstates the road, and shorten permitting timelines.
Operators, infrastructure and technology companies should pursue shared-infrastructure and neutral-host models that lower the cost of rural and indoor coverage, and pair every coverage investment with measures that put affordable devices in users’ hands, including locally manufactured devices and SIMs.
Participants also recognised that the principal barriers identified across the Forum—the cost and tenor of financing, Right of Way and permitting constraints, the cost and reliability of power, and gaps in trusted infrastructure data—are interconnected and require coordinated action across government, regulators, investors, financiers and industry.
