‘20m Nigerians lack digital access’

Nigeria’s persistent digital divide which has continued to exclude economic potential of rural communities from the overall digital economy of the country is now threatening the investment in the sector as urban dwellers’ income dwindles.  Increased taxes and charges are causing rural dwellers to reduce their spending on internet and other telecom services. That’s why […]

Nigeria’s persistent digital divide which has continued to exclude economic potential of rural communities from the overall digital economy of the country is now threatening the investment in the sector as urban dwellers’ income dwindles. 

Increased taxes and charges are causing rural dwellers to reduce their spending on internet and other telecom services.

That’s why experts said the government should close the access gap in the rural areas so operators could augment their earnings.

Daily Trust reports that while cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, and other big cities and medium cities across the country enjoy advanced internet infrastructure and below the average telecom services, over 70% of Nigeria’s rural population still remains digitally excluded. 

Official estimates reveal that more than 20 million Nigerians currently lack any form of access to modern connectivity—a figure larger than the population of many African countries.

Access gaps refer to the cluster of communities or grouped areas in different parts of the country that are bereft of access to telecom and Internet services. 

Experts said the situation not only reflects a serious access gap but also highlights a significant untapped opportunity for innovation, market growth and inclusive development. 

Omobayo Azeez, Convener and Partnership Coordinator for RuralConnect Summit, explains that: “Digital transformation cannot be said to be successful if millions of Nigerians in rural areas remain cut off.” 

Other experts have expressed similar concerns over the widening rural-urban digital divide and called for urgent measures to bridge the gap.

New data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that while urban areas enjoy Internet access at 57 per cent, rural communities lag far behind at just 23 per cent, leaving 77 per cent without Internet access.

But NCC said there should be collaboration to ensure ubiquitous access.

NCC’s Lagos Zonal Controller, Tunji Jimoh, explained that over 20 million Nigerians still live without any form of digital access, underscoring a crisis that continues to exclude a large population from the benefits of connectivity.

But he said the recently launched Nigeria Digital Connectivity Index (NDCI) is part of the government’s renewed efforts to address the problem.

Introduced on October 9, 2025, the Index will measure and publish each state’s level of digital readiness yearly, encouraging competition and accountability among state governments, according to him.

Despite Nigeria’s Information and Communication Technology Development Index (IDI) score improving from 46.9 in 2024 to 52.9 in 2025, the gains remained largely concentrated in urban centres such as Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Maiduguri and others, which together account for as much as 80 per cent of total data usage in the country.

The NCC admitted that by contrast, rural regions still struggle with inadequate fibre infrastructure, high deployment costs and persistent vandalism.

“The digital divide is a barrier to education, healthcare, financial inclusion and economic empowerment,” NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman Dr.Aminu Maida, said adding, “Bridging this divide is central to achieving inclusive national development, particularly in rural areas where over 45 per cent of Nigeria’s population still faces systemic exclusion from digital opportunities.”

The NCC boss revealed that Nigeria’s broadband penetration currently stands at 48.81 per cent, and research shows that every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration can lift the GDP of developing economies by about 1.38 per cent. Yet, the gap between cities and villages continues to stifle that potential.

Globally, the average IDI score stands at 77.6, with high-income economies averaging 92. Across Africa, the average is 56.1, leaving Nigeria below the continental mean despite its size and ambitions.

Maida said bridging this gulf requires not just investment in infrastructure but also innovative policy tools. 

He pointed to the Commission’s new General Authorisation Framework, introduced in draft form in July 2025, which will allow innovators to pilot technologies such as satellite-based Internet and low-cost 5G towers in underserved regions under a flexible licensing regime.

Azeez said “Connectivity is more than cables and towers. It is access to education, healthcare, markets, governance and opportunity.”

Experts said this should be addressed in term because as the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) economy surges toward an estimated $15.7 trillion by 2030, Nigeria risks being left behind unless it urgently addresses its deepening digital divide, industry leaders and experts warned.

With millions of Nigerians still offline, the country faces a critical challenge in securing its place in the transformative AI revolution, according to experts. 

However, stakeholders have called for massive investments in digital infrastructure, talent development, and ethical frameworks to ensure Nigeria can harness AI’s potential to drive economic growth and solve pressing social challenges.

A PwC report said digital exclusion already costs African economies over $100 billion annually, with less than 40 percent of rural Nigeria enjoying reliable internet.

Olu Ojo Olalekan, an IT expert said   digital exclusion is unacceptable, adding that access to technology must not be a privilege, it is a right. “Every Nigerian has a right to progress and a right to participate fully in the global digital economy,” he added.

To close this gap, the federal government has granted seven-year satellite permits to Amazon’s low-Earth orbit broadband network Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper), Israel’s NSLComm-backed BeetleSat and Germany-based Satelio IoT Services, widening competition in space-based internet services as Africa’s most populous nation seeks to close a deep digital access gap.

The licenses, which take effect from February, allow the new entrants to operate alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose Starlink service has rapidly scaled since launching in Nigeria in 2023, according to postings by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on its website.

More than 20 million Nigerians live in unserved or underserved areas, the regulator said, while mobile broadband penetration stood at 50.58% as of November 2025, indicating the limits of terrestrial networks in reaching rural and hard-to-access communities.

SpaceX first received a satellite permit in Nigeria in January 2021 but only rolled out Starlink two years later, marking its first African market. The company subsequently secured an additional license valid through 2030. By the end of the second quarter of 2025, Starlink had amassed 66,523 subscribers, making it Nigeria’s second-largest internet service provider, behind Lagos-based Spectranet, which has operated for more than 16 years.

“From a financial services and fintech perspective, expanded satellite connectivity means more endpoints, more data flows and more distributed infrastructure, particularly in rural areas now coming online,” Gbolabo Awelewa, Chief Business Officer at Nigerian-managed security service provider Esentry Systems, told  FORBES AFRICA recently.

Nigeria’s broadband market remains heavily mobile-led, with 4G and early 5G networks carrying most traffic, while fiber is concentrated in urban centers. 

 

Past Efforts 

NCC said, “We have worked tirelessly to ensure we bring telecom services to people living in rural, unserved, and underserved areas of this country. 

“By 2019, we had succeeded in reducing the clusters of access gaps to 114 through the deployment of the necessary infrastructure needed to bring services to people living in rural, unserved and underserved areas of the country. The deployment of infrastructure is in terms of base transceiver stations, which resulted in the reduction of Nigerians in those clusters from 37 million to 31 million in 2019.

“By 2022, we have reduced the clusters of access gaps to 97 from 207 in 2013. The number of Nigerians again have come down from 37 million in 2013 to 27 million as we speak. It has again come down to below 20million as at 2025. We were able to achieve this by deploying, from 2009 to 2025, hundreds of new base transceiver stations.”

The commission stated that in 2013 to 2018, the telecom sector also witnessed the deployment of additional 124 base transceiver stations while from 2019 to 2022, a total of 364 base transceiver stations were deployed.

“So far, the total number of base transceiver stations we have deployed to date between the time the access gaps were identified till the end of 2022 are 567.”