The Federal Government has incorporated Bridge Open Access (Bridge OA), the independent company established to deliver Nigeria’s planned 90,000-kilometre nationwide fibre-optic network under Project BRIDGE. The incorporation moves the $2 billion Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth (BRIDGE) project into its execution phase. The development was announced on Saturday by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, who said the new company will provide the institutional platform required to move the project into its implementation phase. What FG is saying
Tijani said the incorporation of Bridge Open Access represents a major step in the Federal Government’s efforts to move Project BRIDGE from planning and financing into actual implementation. “Today, Nigeria has reached another major milestone in the delivery of Project BRIDGE with the incorporation of Bridge Open Access (Bridge OA), the independent company that will deliver one of Africa’s largest open access fibre infrastructure programmes,” he said in a post on X. He said the incorporation provides the institutional structure required to advance the project and bring private investors into the initiative.
“This marks the transition from planning to execution, creating the institutional platform that will complete strategic investor onboarding, accelerate nationwide broadband deployment, and position Nigeria as a regional digital connectivity hub for West Africa,” Tijani added. The Federal Government has structured the project as a public-private partnership, with private-sector investors expected to hold the majority stake in the company. Under the structure outlined by the government in its April 2026 investor prequalification notice, the Federal Government will hold between 25% and 49% of the proposed SPV, while private-sector investors will hold at least 51%. Get up to speed
Project BRIDGE has been in development since 2024, when the Federal Executive Council approved the establishment of an SPV to facilitate the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable across Nigeria. In May 2024, Tijani announced the approval, saying the additional fibre infrastructure would deepen Nigeria’s digital backbone and increase the country’s connectivity capacity. The government said at the time that the project would add 90,000 kilometres to the current 35,000-kilometre fibre network coverage, taking the combined national backbone to about 125,000 kilometres. The infrastructure was also expected to connect more than 200,000 educational, healthcare and other social institutions while expanding broadband access to underserved communities.
In August 2024, Tijani said development-finance partners were working to finalise the SPV structure and that the government expected to begin deployment within six months. In March 2025, the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy formally opened an investor consultation process, inviting private-sector companies interested in participating in the proposed Project BRIDGE SPV. The financing structure also began to take shape. In October 2025, the World Bank approved $500 million for Project BRIDGE, with the financing supporting the rollout of 90,000 kilometres of fibre infrastructure. The World Bank documents provide for the fibre network to be managed through an SPV that will provide wholesale open-access services.
In February 2026, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a $100 million sovereign loan to finance Nigeria’s participation in the SPV. The Federal Government also announced a €22 million grant from the European Union. Months later, in April 2026, the African Development Bank approved another $200 million loan for Project BRIDGE, adding to the financing already secured from the World Bank and EBRD.
The same month, the Federal Government formally invited private-sector investors to prequalify for participation in the Project BRIDGE SPV. By May 2026, EBRD procurement documents showed that technical preparations were continuing, including work related to the design of a major fibre rollout package.
The latest development is the incorporation of Bridge Open Access, which now provides the independent corporate vehicle through which the government can proceed with investor onboarding and the physical deployment of the network. What you should know
Nigeria currently has 101,148.36 kilometres of fibre-optic cable deployed across its 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but a significant share of the infrastructure is concentrated in Lagos and Abuja. A Nairametrics’ analysis of state-by-state infrastructure data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that Lagos and the FCT account for a combined 18,559.83 kilometres of deployed fibre, representing 18.35% of the country’s total fibre network. Project BRIDGE is expected to help address this imbalance by deploying an additional 90,000 kilometres of open-access fibre infrastructure across the country, extending high-speed connectivity beyond Nigeria’s major commercial and administrative centres.
