Nigeria has secured a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank Group to fund a major expansion of the country’s digital infrastructure, as part of a $2 billion project aimed at connecting every local government area to high-speed internet.
The project known as D-VIBE, or Project BRIDGE will extend Nigeria’s national fibre backbone from around 30,000 kilometres to 120,000 kilometres, with the goal of reaching schools, hospitals, farms and rural communities that have long been cut off from reliable connectivity.
The AfDB loan sits within a wider $800 million sovereign package, alongside funding from the World Bank ($500 million) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ($100 million). Private sector investors are expected to contribute at least $1.2 billion of the total $2 billion financing.
“Nigeria has the talent, the market, and the ambition; what it has lacked is the backbone infrastructure to connect that potential to opportunity,” said Abdul Kamara, the AfDB’s Director General for Nigeria.
The project will be delivered through a public-private partnership, with private investors holding a majority stake of between 51 and 75 per cent. It will also include cross-border fibre connections with Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Officials say D-VIBE could create up to 2.8 million jobs and push national broadband penetration from 45% to roughly 70% by 2030 — a significant leap for a country of more than 200 million people where digital access remains deeply uneven.
The initiative forms part of Nigeria’s broader national development agenda and aligns with the African Union’s long-term Agenda 2063 goals.
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