EU Approves €22m Grant for Nigeria’s 90,000km Fibre Project
- The European Union approved a €22 million grant to support Nigeria’s Project BRIDGE fibre expansion
- The grant will be channelled through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
- The funding complements an €86 million EBRD loan and expected support from the World Bank and AfDB
Oluwatobi Odeyinka is a business editor at Legit.ng, covering energy, the money market, technology and macroeconomic trends in Nigeria.
The European Union (EU) has approved a €22 million grant to support Nigeria’s nationwide fibre-optic expansion under the federal government’s Project BRIDGE initiative, The Cable reported.
Source: UGC
The funding was reportedly announced in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday. According to the statement, the grant will be channelled through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and subsequently on-granted to Nigeria’s federal ministry of communications, innovation and digital economy.
The EU said the grant complements an €86 million loan from the EBRD’s own resources, which is expected to receive final approval in the coming weeks.
EBRD, EU outline financing structure
Speaking at the signing ceremony, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso, who is on an official visit to Nigeria, said the bank is pleased to partner with the EU to expand digital infrastructure in Africa’s largest economy.
She noted that the financing package includes technical cooperation designed to attract private investment while ensuring secure, inclusive and sustainable connectivity nationwide.
“We are proud to join forces with the EU to advance the deployment of digital infrastructure in Nigeria,” she said.
Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, described the agreement as a key step toward delivering Project BRIDGE on schedule.
According to him, Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda depends on robust and resilient broadband infrastructure. He added that the partnership signals growing international confidence in the country’s digital roadmap.
EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Gautier Mignot, said trusted and high-integrity digital infrastructure is strategically important for both Nigeria and the EU, noting that digital cooperation has become a core area of engagement between the two partners.
Funding to support 90,000km fibre rollout
The statement explained that the €22 million EU grant is structured to complement sovereign loans expected from the EBRD, the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Combined financing will support the establishment and capitalisation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) tasked with deploying 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable nationwide under Project BRIDGE.
The SPV is expected to have 51 per cent private sector participation, in line with the federal government’s objective of crowding in private capital.
The EBRD’s €86 million loan agreement will include conditions relating to cybersecurity safeguards and open-access compliance to ensure that the network operates under internationally recognised standards of transparency, security and competition.
Source: Getty Images
Technical assistance and capacity building
The EU said the grant integrates technical assistance alongside investment support to accelerate implementation.
In the first phase, the technical package will fund Low-Level Design (LLD) work covering approximately 40,000 kilometres of fibre network. This includes route mapping, crossing surveys, digitised planning, quality assurance processes and security risk assessments.
The goal, according to the statement, is to produce a ready-to-deploy blueprint that will allow construction to begin immediately once the SPV is fully operational and financing agreements are finalised.
The funding will also support capacity development within Nigeria’s fibre deployment ecosystem. Plans include training 2,000 technicians, providing targeted equipment subsidies and enabling small subcontractors to access pooled procurement arrangements and volume discounts.
The EU said these measures could lower rollout costs by between 20 and 30 per cent, while strengthening supply-chain resilience and ensuring compliance with both EU and Nigerian quality standards.
Top states with highest internet users
Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigeria’s internet population is concentrated in a few key states, with Lagos State ranking as the most populous state.
Lagos has over 17 million internet users, maintaining a wide margin over other states, while it is followed by Kano and Ogun States, each recording populations above 8 million.
The National Bureau of Statistics revealed that internet user subscribers in Nigeria declined marginally by 0.62% quarter-on-quarter to 142.05 million as of June 2025, compared to 142.05 million recorded in Q1 2025.
Source: Legit.ng
