NCC records over 5,000 fibre cuts in six months, urges road contractors to protect cables

By Onu Okorie

Nigerian Communications Commission NCC has urged road construction companies, contractors, engineers and other stakeholders to strengthen coordination and adopt preventive measures to protect fibre-optic cables during road construction, rehabilitation and other civil works across the country.
The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, made the call on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ workshop on the protection of fibre-optic cables held at the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Office of the National Security Adviser, Abuja.
Maida, according to a statement signed by the NCC Director of Public Affairs, Mrs Nnenna Ukoha, said Nigeria’s drive to expand physical infrastructure must not undermine the digital infrastructure connecting citizens to information, services, markets and opportunities.
He described telecommunications infrastructure as a critical national lifeline, underpinning banking, government services, education, healthcare, commerce, security and emergency communications.
The NCC chief executive disclosed that more than 5,000 fibre-cut incidents were recorded in the first six months of the year, largely as a result of road construction, excavation and related civil works.
He recalled that in February 2024, fibre cuts, including those caused by road construction, triggered an almost network-wide disruption for one telecommunications operator, affecting millions of users for several hours and placing additional pressure on other networks.
“To a machine operator on a construction site, it may appear to be one buried cable. To the nation, it can mean failed calls, stalled payments, interrupted services and missed opportunities,” Maida said.
He stressed that the issue should not be viewed as a matter of assigning blame, noting that road contractors did not deliberately seek to disconnect communities, just as telecommunications operators did not intend to obstruct road construction.
Rather, he said, there was an urgent need for a dependable system of early coordination among road contractors, telecommunications operators, government agencies, regulators and security authorities.
“Our central message is simple: Nigeria must build the roads that connect our communities while protecting the fibre networks that connect our economy. We need both forms of infrastructure, and we need them to work together,” he said.
Maida disclosed that the Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy had inaugurated a Standing Committee on the Protection of Fibre Optic Cables to develop practical coordination mechanisms before, during and after road construction projects.
He added that the committee’s membership had recently been expanded to include representatives of the Office of the National Security Adviser, reflecting the security implications of protecting telecommunications infrastructure.
According to him, telecommunications infrastructure has been designated as Critical National Information Infrastructure, requiring it to be treated as national infrastructure and protected accordingly, with appropriate legal, regulatory and remedial consequences for damage.
The EVC urged telecommunications operators, contractors, government agencies, regulators and security agencies to play their respective roles in preventing fibre damage.
He emphasised that coordination must become an integral part of the planning and execution of road construction and other projects involving excavation.
Maida also urged participants at the workshop to develop practical measures that would make coordination between the relevant stakeholders standard practice rather than the exception.
The workshop is part of ongoing efforts by the NCC and other stakeholders to institutionalise mechanisms for safeguarding telecommunications infrastructure, minimising service disruptions and supporting Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda.
The engagement is expected to culminate in a framework for protecting telecommunications fibre-optic infrastructure during road construction and other excavation activities nationwide.