07 May 2024

In Nigeria, the Ministry of Public Works is considering regulations that criminalise damage caused to the fibre optic infrastructures of telecom operators, according to Bloomberg. The new regulation provides for tougher penalties for offenders and focuses on monitoring the activities of construction companies.

This initiative comes after repeated complaints from MTN Nigeria and other telecommunications companies deploring financial losses due to cable cuts. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has recorded more than 35,000 cases of optical fibre cuts in 2022 and more than 24,000 in 2023. An investment of 14 billion naira has been made to repair this damage.

The attack on telecoms infrastructure has been a concern for several years now. In 2022, Airtel had already asked the authorities to consider it a criminal offense. As early as 2014, the government proposed a bill on critical national infrastructure.