{"id":74504,"date":"2025-08-29T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=74504"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T11:30:11","slug":"telecom-vandalism-threatens-nigerias-digital-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/29\/telecom-vandalism-threatens-nigerias-digital-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Telecom Vandalism Threatens Nigeria\u2019s Digital Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Sarah Sam Adda<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rising vandalism of telecom infrastructure is crippling services across Nigeria, with operators warning the trend could derail the country\u2019s fast-growing digital economy.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent large-scale outage in June left millions offline in nine states after vandals cut a fibre-optic cable in Lekki, Lagos, disrupting businesses and professionals who depend on data services.<\/p>\n<p>Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said many customers blame networks without realising vandalism is often the cause.<\/p>\n<p>Operators report alarming figures: MTN recorded more than 6,000 fibre damage incidents in 2023, costing about $23 million in repairs, while Airtel says it suffers around 40 cases daily.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2018 and 2022, the Nigerian Communications Commission logged at least 50,000 major infrastructure attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Vandals also target substations, stealing batteries, generators, and diesel, often resold to power homes and small businesses.<\/p>\n<p>The impact goes beyond operators. Fibre cuts frequently disconnect rural communities for days, limiting access to mobile money, banking, education, and emergency services.<\/p>\n<p>With Nigeria\u2019s digital economy contributing 18% of GDP in late 2024, experts warn prolonged disruptions could hurt trade, livelihoods, and national security.<\/p>\n<p>President Bola Tinubu has since designated ICT facilities as critical national infrastructure, while National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu cautioned that sabotage poses \u201cfar-reaching implications for economic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, operators also struggle with community disputes, extortion, and diesel supply threats.<\/p>\n<p>IHS Holdings, a major telecoms developer, says vandalism, theft, and weak infrastructure remain key risks to business in Nigeria despite government assurances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sarah Sam Adda &nbsp; Rising vandalism of telecom infrastructure is crippling services across Nigeria, with operators warning the trend could derail the country\u2019s fast-growing digital economy. The most recent large-scale outage in June left millions offline in nine states after vandals cut a fibre-optic cable in Lekki, Lagos, disrupting businesses and professionals who depend [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":74505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74506,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74504\/revisions\/74506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}