Nigeria is taking steps to make the destruction of broadband fiber cables a criminal offense in order to address the complaints from leading telecommunications companies such as MTN Nigeria Communications Plc. 

Insiders familiar with the matter have revealed that the Works Ministry, which supervises federal road construction, is in the last stages of creating regulations, as reported by Bloomberg on Thursday. 

These regulations are anticipated to be approved as an executive order by President Bola Tinubu.

Although laws against vandalism already exist, authorities are seeking to intensify scrutiny of construction firms. The forthcoming executive order will impose severe penalties on perpetrators, although specific details and the signing date remain undisclosed.

“Telecom assets are a critical backbone that supports the economy across sectors,” said a senior presidential aide, Temitope Ajayi, who noted that the Association of Telecommunications Companies has been demanding the classification for years.

“New rules will provide “further assurance that the Nigerian government will protect their investments against vandals and criminal elements.”

The Nigerian Communications Commission estimates that the sector will make up more than a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product by the end of 2027, up from 13.5 per cent in the third quarter of last year.

The move will help alleviate pressure on the telecoms sector, which is facing increased operating costs and sales pressures from a sharp depreciation in the currency and a threefold increase in energy prices.

Repairs and revenue losses from damaged cables is estimated to have cost the sector almost N27bn ($23m) last year alone, documents seen by Bloomberg show. MTN Nigeria, the biggest wireless operator in Africa’s most-populous nation, and Airtel Africa Plc bore the brunt of the costs, the documents show.

MTN suffered more than 6,000 cuts on its fiber cable last year, the documents show. On Feb. 28, a cut in its network in three different locations by a road construction firm, an oil servicing company, and someone burning rubbish in a manhole meant customers faced more than five hours of data and voice outages.

The operator relocated 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) of vulnerable fiber cables between 2022 and 2023, at a cost of more than N11bn —enough to build 870 kilometers of new fiber lines in areas without coverage.

A presidential order on the matter would be welcomed, said the head of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere.

“When it comes to communication infrastructure, they are destroyed at will, so we are eagerly awaiting the president’s order,” he said. “It would be a great boost to the industry, and it will also encourage investment.”