Nigeria’s rural connectivity challenge is not primarily a technology problem but one of execution, financing, coordination and community participation, Tola Yusuf, Founding Partner of Infratel Africa, has said.
Yusuf made the assertion at the second edition of the Rural Connectivity Summit (RuralConnect) 2.0, organised by Business Metrics Limited in Lagos on Tuesday, where he called for a fundamental rethink of how the country plans, finances and delivers connectivity to underserved communities.
Speaking virtually on The Reality of Rural Connectivity: Pursuing Sustainable Deployment Amid Multiple Challenges, Yusuf acknowledged the progress recorded in broadband penetration but said Nigeria remained short of its national target.
“According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), broadband penetration reached 57.4 per cent in July. Real progress. But the National Broadband Plan targeted 70 per cent by the end of 2025. We did not get there,” he said, describing the situation as “the unfinished business of digital inclusion”.
Yusuf said the real difficulty was sustaining rural infrastructure after deployment, identifying what he called the “five Ps” of rural connectivity, listed as power, payback, permits, protection and people.
“Building a rural site is hard. Keeping it alive is harder,” he said, pointing to inadequate grid supply, high diesel costs, weak commercial returns, regulatory bottlenecks, vandalism and poor community involvement as major obstacles.
He advocated solar-first sites for rural areas and suggested aggregating schools, clinics and local government facilities as anchor customers to create predictable cash flow for investors.
On regulation, Yusuf criticised Right of Way charges, multiple levies and slow approvals, saying policies must move beyond broad intentions to clearly defined responsibilities and measurable outcomes.
He also called for stronger protection of telecommunications infrastructure against vandalism and fibre cuts, while stressing the importance of local ownership. “Local acceptance, local skills, local ownership. The answer: build with communities, not merely for them,” he said.
Citing findings from his recent doctoral research, Yusuf said stakeholders broadly agreed that blended finance, infrastructure sharing, renewable energy and community participation could support sustainable rural connectivity.
However, funding, coordination and timeliness were rated weakest when stakeholders assessed actual delivery. “Nigeria does not have an ideas problem. We have an execution problem,” he said.
He urged government and development partners to focus on measurable outcomes rather than simply counting activities or projects delivered. “Measure uptime, affordability, and whether schools and clinics are actually connected. Fund the service. Reward the outcome,” Yusuf said.
Yusuf also warned that major investments in backbone infrastructure would not automatically translate into rural inclusion without deliberate last-mile planning.
Referring to Project BRIDGE and its planned 90,000 kilometres of fibre, he said, “Reaching the LGA headquarters is not reaching the village. The backbone creates capacity. The last mile creates inclusion.”
Drawing on Infratel Africa’s experience across more than 350 communities, he added that “engineering builds the tower, but trust and local ownership decide whether it survives.”
He further rejected the notion that rural connectivity should be treated as a charity intervention, arguing that underserved communities represent a significant frontier market.
“These are customers, producers, and creators of value. Connectivity gives access. Participation creates value,” he said.
Yusuf urged government to make policy executable, investors to structure for long-term value and development partners to finance outcomes rather than activities.
“Rural Nigeria is not offline by choice. It is offline by design: the design of our finance, our policy, and our partnerships. And what was designed can be redesigned,” Yusuf said, urging stakeholders to connect the next 25 million Nigerians not merely as users of the digital economy, but “as producers and owners of it.”