MTN Nigeria’s fibre infrastructure under siege: 145 cuts daily, N17.6bn loss 

“Before we lay these fibres, we usually get authorisation from the governments concern and we ensure that Right of Way (RoW) is respected”

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

MTN Nigeria’s Chief Technical Officer(CTO), Yahaya Ibrahim, has revealed that the company’s fibre infrastructure is facing unprecedented attacks, as it records an average of 145 fibre cuts daily due to vandalism and road construction activities, resulting in a staggering ₦17.6 billion loss in 2024.

Within the said 2024 year period, it suffered over 13,700 fibre cuts between January 2024 to June 2025, necessitating it’s call for greater support from government and stakeholders to protect critical telecommunications infrastructure.

Ibrahim, who made the revelation during a study tour by participants of the fourth Media Innovation Programme (MIP-4), at the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, to MTN’s head office in Ikoyi, last week.

The vandalism of critical national infrastructure, including telecommunications masts, fibre cables, generators, and base station equipment, has far-reaching consequences, disrupting the digital economy and causing substantial losses in financial, health, socio-economic, and security sectors for individuals, corporations, and the nation as a whole.

The chief Technical Officer while Shedding light on some of the challenges telcom operators face in the country, said MTN for instance, records an average of 145 cable cuts daily as a result of vandalism or road construction/expansion activities.

9,000 of the incidents he said were recorded last year, stating that between January and June this year, MTN suffered over 4,700 fibre cuts.

A regional breakdown of these fibre cuts showed that southern Nigeria recorded 6,300 comprising 2,800 in the Southwest and 3,500 recorded in the southeast and south-south.

The company he said suffered 2,500 incidents in the north.

Ibrahim

He said, “If we look at the cuts per region in the Southeastern and South-south states have more cuts and this is where we have the most hotspots for fibre and site vandalism.

“Akwa Ibom, Abia and Rivers stand out in states. While in specific locations Omoku and Egbema stand out for fibre vandalism.”

The CTO lamented that incessant fibre cuts were costing the company huge fortunes, revealing that a whooping N17.6 billion was spent to repair cuts in 2024, while N26.3 billion was budgeted for maintenance and relocation of cables once the need arises.

Ibrahim said sabotage and road construction accounted for 69per cent of total fibre cuts across the country, noting that MTN has appealed to relevant authorities to notify it whenever there is road construction or expansion around its fibre routes so the cables are relocated promptly.

“Before we lay these fibres, we usually get authorisation from the government concern and we ensure that Right of Way (RoW) is respected. After laying them, we take the maps to them so they know the locations of these cables.

“This is to prevent network disruptions and downtimes which affect almost all sectors of the economy. On a monthly average, we recorded 15 hours of downtime. During this period, all services will be down, that means no one will be able to use any services,” he said.

To contain these challenges, MTN said it has deployed route patrol/monitoring; construction bypass; investing in diverse routes for resilience, relocation of fibre, stakeholder engagement (construction workers and authorities), as well as communities for effective policing.

He said the announced designation of telecommunications assets as critical national infrastructures (CNI) by the government was a welcome development, adding that it would bolster support from state forces.

Ibrahim said there was a need for education and enlightenment of the masses on the importance of telecommunication services to Nigerians, and how disruptions affect the economic, social, political and security activities that are dependent on it.

“This is how critical connectivity has become to Nigerians. When services are down people will not be able to do online bank transactions, the merchants/vendors that sell products online will not be able to sell.

“If there is a security risk in the household or area you will not be able to get help; the gamers or social media enthusiasts will not be able to use the applications, a sick person will not be able to call for help.

“I mean the consequences of not having connectivity are far reaching. Once we educate then we can go to enforcement. Safeguarding of telecoms infrastructure is the collective responsibility of everyone because of its importance to our daily lives.

“The designation is still new but interventions are in progress to fully operationalize the law,” Ibrahim stated.