Nigerian telecom giant requests approval to lay 160km Internet fibre cable in Ekiti

Source: Tech Point

A major Nigerian telecommunications provider recently requested approval to lay Internet fibre cables in Ekiti state Nigeria. Ekiti lies in Southwestern Nigeria, roughly 211 miles away from the country’s commercial capital city of Lagos.

Akin Oyebode, special adviser, Investment, Trade, and Innovation for the Ekiti State Government made this known in a tweet stating that the development was a result of the recent reduction in RoW charges.

Though Oyebode did not reveal the telco behind the request, a source close to the matter has revealed MTN Nigeria to be behind this move. This and other details behind this request are yet to be confirmed.

We reached out to MTN for comments but we have received no reply as at press time.

This development is particularly interesting given that the high cost of RoW in most Nigerian states, has been a major issue for the federal government in the past few years.

While the National Economic Council (NEC) resolved that there should be a uniform price of ₦145 per meter, different states in Nigeria charge as high as ₦5,000, a far cry from the agreed amount.

On May 14, 2020, the Ekiti state government crashed the Right-of-way charges for broadband and other related Internet infrastructure from ₦4,500 ($11.53) to ₦145($0.37) per meter.